Avoiding the Inevitable
by loveofallthatisawesome
Summary: Jace is new at school, but that doesn't stop him from quickly climbing up the social ladder much to Clary's dismay. Try as she might, she can't deny the attraction she has for the arrogant golden boy even when he seemingly gets with every girl but her.
1. Getting Ready

_Disclaimer: Anything from the Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare. _

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><p>Clary stared at herself in the full-size mirror that hung on her closet door. After a week of preparing for the first day of school it all came down to the one last thing she'd yet to do: choose her outfit. She glanced at the clothes she was trying on - the black, run-down converse, green tights, blue denim shorts, a white long-sleeved shirt, and a dark green short-sleeved shirt on top. All-in-all, she was a fashion disaster.<p>

She groaned and turned to look at Magnus, her friend, who was currently going through her perfumes and testing them all out.

He sprayed one on his wrist and brought it up to his nose to smell it and immediately crinkled up his face. "Ew, this one smells like wet dog. Seriously, where do you get these things? They're horrible!"

"Hey!" Clary yelled indignantly. She rushed over to him and took it away, placing it back on top of her dresser. "That one was a gift from Luke."

He laughed dryly. "Well, that would explain everything," he said. Clary rolled her eyes and walked back to the mirror turning sideways to see from different angles.

"So what do you guys think?" She asked both Magnus, who was still eying the perfumes, and Simon who was laying down on her bed playing with a PSP. "Do I look okay in this one?"

Simon paused the game he was playing and looked at her. He lifted his eyebrows in shock. "You're short. And you're wearing all green? You look like a leprechaun, Fray. That or an elf. Point is - no. I may not know a lot about fashion, but I do know that people only dress like that on Saint Patrick's day." She glowered at him and he shrugged then continued to play his game.

"Just because you're my best friend doesn't mean you can get away with these types of comments. In fact, I think that _because _you're my best friend you're supposed to be saying I look awesome," She argued.

"But then that would be lying, and what kind of a friend would I be then?" He pointed out without a glance in my direction. I scowled and turned to Magnus.

"What do you think?"

Magnus, finally managing to step away from the perfumes, scrutinized her from top to bottom. He shook his head ruefully. "Not even Jessica Biel could pull that one off, honey, and she looks gorgeous in _anything_." He walked towards her, a trail of glitter in his wake. He grabbed her by the elbow and started twirling her around in order to see her better. He sighed. "You are hopeless. I sometimes wonder how you managed to dress yourself these past ten years without causing at least a few people to go blind." She could hear Simon snort in the background.

She narrowed her eyes and jerked her arm away from his grasp. "Don't you have somewhere to be? You know, with that one guy you're always talking about?"

He instantly cheered up and clasped his hands together. With a dreamy look he said, "His name is _Alec_ and he's my boyfriend not just some guy. Please Clarissa, you should know this already. We've been dating for the past two weeks."

She shook her head and smiled, Magnus' prior comment forgotten. "I know. When are you sending out the wedding invitations?" She joked.

"Soon enough, my dear. I've yet to decide whether I'm going to decorate them in glitter or if I should make the paper itself multicolored." Clary laughed and moved to lay down next to Simon on the bed.

"You're crazy, Magnus," Clary said. She looked over to see what Simon was playing. It looked like all he was doing was shooting people.

"Crazy in love," Magnus responded. His smile faded and was replaced by a frown. "In answer to your previous question, though, Alec is out with his siblings. His sister insisted on taking him shopping with her, what with being new and all, and they felt a need to stand out or something so now I'm left here all by my lonesome self." He made a great big show of sighing and putting his hand on his forehead as though he were about to faint.

"You're not alone. You've been with us all day," Simon said. He shifted on the bed so that Clary could get closer and see the game better. It wasn't very interesting to her, but she enjoyed seeing Simon when he played. He was always making weird facial expressions and shouting at the other players as though they could hear him.

"Like I said. My lonesome self," Magnus repeated.

"This is the last time I let you hang out with us if you don't even consider us as good company," Clary said, halfheartedly. She was getting tired and laying down with Simon always made her sleepy for some reason. He was just so warm.

"Oh, I was just joking darling." She heard footsteps moving and looked up to see Magnus walking towards the door. "Alright then, honey bunches of oats, I shall see you two tomorrow. I need to look fabulous tomorrow and it's going to take me hours to get everything right." He put his hand on the doorknob and opened the door. "And Clary don't over think the clothes. Just wear whatever you want I'm sure it'll work out. If not…then I don't know you at school."

"How rude!" Clary grabbed a pillow and threw it at him which turned out to be futile when he ducked. "I don't ever shun you even when you look like a rainbow all the time."

"That's because I'm so marvelous." This time both Clary and Simon rolled their eyes. "See you." With that he stepped out and shut the door behind him.

Clary listened to his receding footsteps and wondered how Magnus had turned out the way he was. After he came out to his parents when he was sixteen the year before they disowned him. She would've thought that he would be depressed and maybe have trouble with his sexuality, but instead he embraced it and flaunted it to the world. Clary wished she could be as confident as him.

After a while of watching Simon pointlessly swear, she asked him, "Why do you play this game so much if all you do is get mad at it?"

"I don't get mad at it I get frustrated because the other players are making me lose and what do you mean so much? I've only been able to play four hours a day ever since I was forced to volunteer at the synagogue."

Clary snorted. She knew it was very unattractive, especially when she did it in front of cute guys, but she couldn't help it. "Only? That's enough time to clean an entire house, read a small book, run a few miles, cook dinner, stop global warming -" She was cut off by Simon.

"Ha ha. I get the idea, Fray. You don't understand, though." He paused the game and turned to look at her. "I've only been getting thirty kills in one game when I should be getting at least fifty. You may not be a math whiz, but you should be able to see that that is a difference of twenty meaning I am very behind and I need to catch up to everyone else before Eric and all the other guys start making fun of me." He had said it all so solemnly Clary couldn't help but laugh.

He pushed her causing her to almost roll off the bed. She stopped herself before she actually did and sat up, still trying to hold in her laughter. "I'm sorry, Simon. It's just that, seriously? Surely, there must be much more interesting, productive things you could do with your free time."

"Not really. Just the synagogue thing." He sat up, too, and turned off his PSP putting it aside.

"Speaking of, how is that?"

"Eh, it's fine. The Rabbi has me going around talking to people about Jewish stuff and reading the bible. Its kind of boring actually."

"Sounds like it."

He smacked her playfully on the arm. "Just because you're an atheist and you have no heart."

She gasped, feigning being hurt. "I'm offended. I'm not an atheist."

He laughed. "Of course, _that's_ the part that you would deny. So you're admitting that you have no heart."

Oh come on Simon. You know me better than anyone else."

"So it's been confirmed." They both laughed when Clary jumped Simon and pretended to strangle him.

"You tell anyone and you will be subjected to my wrath," Clary said with her hands still around Simon's neck.

He was trying to pry them away, but her hands were so small it was nearly impossible. "Oh really? And what would be worse than this?" He asked in a strained voice.

Clary thought about it. "I will tell everyone that you're still a virgin."

Simon furrowed his brow. "So are you."

Clary let go of Simon and watched as he sat up and started rubbing his neck. For a second, she thought she might have actually hurt him, but when he took his hands away she noticed she didn't even leave a mark. She frowned. "You don't know that, and anyway for a guy who's a junior it's even more embarrassing."

He pondered it for a moment before saying, "True. Okay, Clary, your secret of having no heart will be safe with me as long as mine is safe with you."

They both laughed. "Deal." and they shook on it giving it a more formal feel even if they _were_ just playing around.

Simon stood up and glanced at the clock on the bureau. It was nearly ten pm. He yawned causing Clary to yawn as well.

"Seems like we're both sleepy," Simon pointed out.

"Not really. Did you know yawns are contagious?" Clary asked.

Simon looked at her as though she just said that the sun is yellow. "Yes, Clary, I did know that. Actually, I think I remember me telling you that fact a few days ago when I read it in that People magazine."

Clary flushed, embarrassed that she hadn't remembered that. "ha, well…yeah. Now we know twice," she finished lamely.

"You're so weird," Simon said.

"You're weirder." She said, sounding like a five year old.

Simon grabbed his PSP and walked to the door, just like Magnus had done almost a half hour before. "It's getting late, Fray, I have to go to sleep. And so do you so I'll see you tomorrow. I'll pick you up at 7:30."

"Yeah, fine. You and Magnus were as useful as a trench coat on a summer day, by the way," she called out to him.

"Hey, I never said I was going to help you choose your clothes. I just said I would hang with you guys."

Clary grumbled, knowing he was right.

"Kay, Simon. Good night."

He walked out the door and left Clary alone. She took off all her clothes and changed into her pajamas. She laid down on her bed and dreaded the fact that the first day of school was the next day. She was nervous about it. It was the first day of her Junior year, as an upperclassmen, and she knew that the outfit people wore on the first day was the basis of how you were judged by everyone else which was the only reason she was even making a big deal out of it. Normally she wouldn't, but she also wanted to get in good with the other people because she decided that this was the year that she was going to stand out. She had gotten into Dance Bravo, the school dance team, and she was going to be on top.


	2. Meeting Jace

_Disclaimer: Anything from the Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare. _

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><p>Clary hurried down to where Simon and his band mates were waiting in Eric's car. She slid open the door to the ugly yellow van and climbed in. She pushed Matt aside and sat down upon the ripped seats.<p>

"God, Eric," Clary said, adjusting herself so the protruding springs wouldn't poke her. "I thought you said you were going to fix this van already."

"Well, if you want to give me some money right now to fix it then I will gladly accept it from you," he said dismissively from the front passenger seat. Eric was a somewhat good friend to Clary, more to Simon, but he sometimes acted as though she were more of an annoying little sister. She was used to it, though, so it didn't faze her so much.

A while later, they pulled up to the Shadow High School parking lot and Simon, who was driving, cautiously tried to avoid hitting any of the wandering students.

"Jesus, just because it's the first day of school doesn't mean that everyone's allowed to run around like headless chickens," Simon yelled after almost hitting a girl.

They all got out of the car, Matt practically pushing her out. She glared at him once they were standing on the parking lot which he ignored.

Clary walked up the front school steps with Simon by her side, his friends had gone off to talk with some girls with too much make up and way too little clothes, the types of girls they usually talked to.

Clary glanced around once they made it inside. They were in the cafeteria which was basically a giant room with a high ceiling, round tables scattered around, and hundreds of students crowded together in the limited space. It could be considered a club if it was night and there was music, Clary thought, with how close everyone was pressed up against each other.

She saw a few people she knew as they passed through and nodded her head in greeting, but didn't bother to start a conversation with anyone. Clary preferred it that way, she only really needed Magnus and Simon, anyway, she assured herself. Everyone else was like a small phase in her life, just people she could talk to to pass the time when she was bored in class.

"Clary!" Simon's slightly annoyed voice brought her out of her wandering thoughts. He stared at her with a look that she had become very familiar with, which meant that he had been talking and she hadn't been paying attention. "I don't understand how you can go AWOL all the time without noticing what's going on around you."

She nudged his shoulder. "Don't be jealous because my creative mind holds wonders you could never even possibly begin to imagine." He scoffed. "Anyway, what were you saying?"

"Oh yeah, Magnus said he's going to be late and he'll see us in lunch," he said.

She resumed walking towards the doors at the opposite side of the cafeteria, for the groups of people around her were making her feel like she was being suffocated, pulling Simon along with her by the wrist. "Yeah, I figured he would," she said as she passed the doors and made her way down the hallways. "He always feels a need to stand out."

"Where are we going?" Simon said after a while of being pulled this way and that. Clary stopped and turned to face him, contemplating.

"I don't know," she finally said. She reached into her neon green backpack and pulled out the bright yellow paper that had arrived in the mail a few days earlier. She quickly scanned the list, looking for her last name. "Room 154 with Ms...Gay...rod? I think that's how you say it." She shrugged.

Simon scowled. "I wish I had homeroom with you. I have to go to room 306 with Mr. Gerard. I don't think he likes me even though I was practically the best in Auto Tech last year."

Clary laughed out loud. "Simon, you caused the fire alarm to go off last year because you set an engine on fire."

He straightened up and looked around to make sure no one was hearing. "That is confidential, Fray." He groaned when she kept on laughing. The warning bell rang and he looked up, surprised. "Already? Wow, that was fast. Alright, Fray, I'll see you later." He turned and walked away. She smiled and went towards her homeroom as well.

**.**

Homeroom and the first two periods passed by quickly for Clary, possibly because classes were shortened for the day. She had finally made it to her third period which was US history. She chose her seat towards the back. As soon as she settled in, she saw Simon walk in. Her face lit up, happy that she'd finally gotten a class with him. She gestured for him to come over to her when he saw her.

He sat down on the desk next to hers. "Let me see your schedule," Clary immediately demanded. He handed her the thick beige paper with the giant 11 in the corner. Clary gripped his arm, startling him, then she said, "This is good. We have third, fourth, and fifth period together." She smiled widely.

He sighed, relieved. "I'm glad, I seriously thought we weren't going to have any classes together and then who was I going to talk to about anime and names for my band?" he inquired.

"Hmm, you guys should go with something ironic, like 'The Nameless' or the 'The Indecisive'," she suggested.

Simon pursed his lips in thought. "Not so bad, Fray." He ruffled her hair. "You're not completely useless after all." She narrowed her eyes at him before swatting his hand away.

**.**

As soon as lunch came by, Simon and Clary went to meet up with Magnus. As they rounded the corner, they saw him sitting at one of the tables. He was impossible to miss, really.

He was wearing bright purple jeans, a rainbow studded belt, and a black shirt with a picture of Marilyn Monroe made entirely of glitter. He had a green gauge in his right ear and his hair was spiked in all directions and held in place with glitter. He was also wearing the contacts that made his eyes look like that of a cat's.

This sight wasn't what slowed down both Clary and Simon, though. It was the people who were sitting next to him. On his right was a guy with midnight black hair and piercing ocean blue eyes. Clary guessed he was Alec since he and Magnus were holding hands. He looked slightly uncomfortable, though, Clary noticed. What was more intimidating for her was the girl sitting to the left of Magnus. Her hair long, black hair nearly touched the chair she was sitting on. Her body was model worthy, too. Even sitting down you could tell she was tall and willowy.

As they approached the table, an amused Magnus said, "Simon, put your eyes back in your head and quit staring at me, it's rude, no matter how gorgeous I am."

"I wasn't looking at you," grumbled Simon. He sat next to the girl and waved at her. Clary had to sit next to Alec.

"Where are your manners? Honestly, I didn't know you guys could be so rude," Magnus reprimanded. He raised the hand that was attached to Alec's. "This is Alec. Isn't he adorable?" Alec blushed muttering 'hi' before turning his head down.

The girl giggled. Magnus gestured towards her. "And this lovely lady is Isabelle Lightwood, Alec's younger sister." Then he pointed at Clary and Simon. "This is the artistic redhead I was telling you about, Clary, and that is her geeky friend - " he was cut off by Isabelle.

"Simon," she smiled. "I know."

Simon's shy smile grew bigger at the acknowledgment.

Clary put her hand up. "Hi, and do you guys know each other?" She looked back and forth between each of them, confusion taking over her face. She and Simon had been best friends for ten years and she was pretty sure she knew all of his friends.

"Well, kind of. Lightwood, Lewis?", Simon said. _Go on_, Clary's expression seemed to say after she didn't understand what he was talking about. "We had homeroom together this morning."

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "So all three of you were together this morning?"

Isabelle grimaced. "Four of us, actually."

Clary furrowed her brow. "Why was Magnus with you guys? His last name is Bane."

"Not me, you bimbo. Though I could have been with them considering I appointed myself their guide for the year," Magnus said cheerfully.

"The year?" Clary asked.

"Mostly Alec, really. I was left to look for my classes on my own, but I don't mind. It's a good way to meet new guys." She smiled mischievously. "And I meant my other brother, Jace. He was with us, too."

"He tripped me as soon as I walked in the room," Simon added, annoyed. "Good thing not a lot of people were there, yet."

"I helped him up," Isabelle quipped. Simon seemed embarrassed by the fact. "My brother can be a total jackass sometimes." She sighed.

"Most of the time," Alec said. Speaking up for the first time. "He's like that to everyone, though."

Clary imagined this Jace as an ugly, skinny kid who had self-esteem issues. Those were usually the ones that tried to prove that they were better than anyone else. Despite his problems, Clary couldn't help but hate him already for messing with her best friend.

"No offense, but I hope I never meet him. I hate people that are like that."

"It's very likely you won't. He's a senior," Alec said. Clary felt relieved. She didn't have a class with  
>Alec or Magnus so she probably wouldn't have a class with Jace either.<p>

"Claary," someone with a deep voice sang in her ear as they covered her eyes from behind. She grabbed the hands, trying to take them off her face. She searched her mind for who it could be and only came up with an answer when she heard Simon groan.

"Sebastian?" she guessed.

He took off his hands and wedged himself between her and Simon, grinning widely. "You guessed right." He smiled at everyone and waved hi, his eyes widening when they reached Isabelle and then finally resting on Clary. "Hello, there, my little ginger." Clary scowled, hating it when he called her that and he kissed her cheek. She pulled back.

"Are you guys going out?" Isabelle gestured at both of them.

Simon scoffed, causing Clary to shoot him a look.

Sebastian shrugged. "I guess you could say that."

"No, you cannot say that. Because it's not true," Clary replied.

"What she means is that _that,_" he pointed at Sebastian, "dark devil wishes to go out with our Clary. But she rejects him time and time again," Magnus clarified.

Sebastian put his arm around Clary's shoulder which she shrugged off. "She'll come around eventually."

"It's been an entire year," Simon said. "I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen."

"I _know_ it's not going to happen," Clary sighed. Sebastian was a good guy, but not the type of guy she wanted. He was hot, sure, but she wanted a guy who she could be with and talk to. Whenever she talked to Sebastian she'd get annoyed and bored. In fact, she got tired of him the day they met.

**.**

Turned out Isabelle also had fourth period with Simon and Clary. They sat next to each other at the back of the class.

"Why don't you go out with Sebastian?" Isabelle asked. "He's really hot." They weren't doing anything in class so Isabelle had begun to talk. "Sure he seemed persistent, but he could be a good lay."

Simon's eyes bulged. "Excuse me! No, Clary would never think of doing that with Sebastian. In fact, she's not going to be doing any type of 'laying' with any guy until she is finished with college and is a successful woman."

Clary glared at him, her cheeks burning. "Shut up, Simon. What I do with a guy and when I do it is none of your business and I'm not waiting until I'm done with college or whatever." Simon stared at her in disbelief. She turned to Isabelle. "And no, I'm not going to get with Sebastian just for that. I don't like him like that. Never have, never will. I think he only wants to get with me to up his status, I guess."

She furrowed her brow. "I don't want to be rude, but didn't you say you're like an art geek or something? How does that further his popularity rank in school?" Simon laughed at that.

Clary sucked in a breath of air. "Yes, art is my passion, but that's not the only thing I do. I'm on the school dance team, Dance Bravo," she said with pride.

Isabelle's expression turned to one of surprise and happiness. "Really? Oh my gosh, I never would've thought." She shook her head a little and said, "I'm in it, too!"

To say Clary was in shock was an understatement. "How? Aren't you new? I mean, the auditions were in May and you..." she trailed off. There was no point in stating the obvious.

Isabelle grinned. "Yeah, I know. But my mom is a very well known lawyer and she argued with the dance teacher to let me join. So yeah, I auditioned and I got in." They spent the rest of the hour listening to Isabelle talking about how amazing it was going to be being dance buddies.

**.**

Clary hated her fifth period class. It was her homeroom and also her French II class with _Madame Gayraud _which was apparently pronounced Gay-roe. She had humiliated Clary when she told her to introduce herself to the class by telling them her name, her age, and a bunch of things Clary didn't yet know how to say. They were also only allowed to speak in French which pretty much made her speechless for the entire hour.

She was glad when she finally arrived to her last class: art. It was the only place in school she felt that she could let go and be who she really was. She sat towards the front because she liked the art teacher and she preferred to get a closer look at the lessons. The bell rang and everyone settled into the seats they had chosen. Clary didn't want to seem selfish, but when she worked she liked to use the entire table, which was originally intended for two people, so she put her backpack on the chair next to hers and pretended that it was taken so people wouldn't sit there.

"Okay, kids. Some of you may think this will be an easy class," Ms. Rahl began. "But I will warn you right now that it is not. I want you guys to appreciate art and to take it seriously. Don't try to play around and do nothing." Just then the door opened and in walked the most gorgeous boy Clary had ever laid her eyes on. The only thing she could think of was, oh my god.

He stood tall and confident, glancing at everyone as though he hadn't just arrived late and disrupted what Ms. Rahl was saying. Clary stared in awe as she heard all the girls in the class audibly gasp and some sigh. He was wearing all black, but it didn't look emo, just sexy. His muscles flexed when he adjusted his backpack and then ran his hand through his wavy, blonde hair. Everything about him seemed so perfect, that Clary had an instant urge to grab her tools and immediately start to draw him down to the smirk that was playing at his lips. What captivated Clary the most, though, were his eyes. They were golden as well, like his hair and almost everything else about him. He was like a golden angel that was sent down from the heavens so that everyone could marvel at God's finest work. Clary stopped herself. _Where did that come from? _she thought.

Ms. Rahl herself seemed stunned, but for a different reason. "Excuse me. Are you here to deliver something or are you lost?"

He stared at her, still smirking. "Actually no, I am not lost, and the only thing I am bringing is myself which will probably be the best delivery you will ever receive." He winked which caused some of the girls to giggle.

She raised her eyebrows. "Well then, would you mind introducing yourself to the class?"

"It would be my pleasure." He turned to face the rest of them. He spoke with a tone that suggested that he thought himself to be better than everyone else. "I am Jace Lightwood and I am new to this school, though it will definitely not seem so in just a few days. Most of you have probably already heard about me and my outstanding achievements so there is no use in me presenting myself further." He grinned.

Clary was frozen in shock. _This_ was Jace? This was the guy that had tripped Simon? Well, he didn't look anything like Clary had thought he would. In fact, he was the complete opposite and it was very obvious he didn't have self-esteem issues either. She looked him over again, this time instead of seeing him as perfect she saw him as a repulsive human being. He was the type of person that cared only about his looks and put down other people just for fun. She couldn't believe that he was in any way related to Isabelle and Alec. They didn't even look related, for that matter.

"Very well, Jace. It's too bad that you came in late or else you would have heard the first part of my introduction. I won't have people playing around and coming into this class whenever they want," Ms. Rahl said. "First impressions are very important, Lightwood, and yours has earned you the opportunity to sit in the very front of class where I can keep my watchful eyes on you."

"You wouldn't be the first one to want to keep your eyes on me," he replied with a devious tone. Clary scowled. She couldn't believe how arrogant he was and how daring he was to speak to the teacher like this. Ms. Rahl narrowed her eyes and looked around the classroom.

She pointed towards Clary. "You will sit next to Clary for the rest of year, Jace." Clary looked around frantically. What? No. There must be somewhere else he could sit, she thought. She felt her hope go down as she realized that the only spot available was the one next to her. _Your own stupid fault for being so selfish_, she chastised herself.

"Wait, Ms. Rahl I'm actually saving this spot for someone," she sputtered, trying to get herself out of sitting next to Jace.

"For who? No one is absent," she said, crossing her arms.

"Oh, don't worry," Jace said as he came towards her. "Being around me isn't so horrible," he whispered, sitting down and scooting over to get closer. She moved her own chair to move farther away.

"Quiet, Jace," Ms. Rahl said. He turned to face the front of the class while looking at Clary out of the corner of his eye. Clary avoided him. Ms. Rahl continued speaking. "Like I was saying, you will be respectful of myself and others," she then shot a look at Jace and he chuckled. "Since today is just for you to get used to your classes you can do whatever you want as long as it's art. And no talking."

Clary pulled out a blank paper from her backpack and a pencil. She was glad for the distraction from Jace. She put the pencil to the paper and began to sketch. First a line here and then a curve there. When she finished she straightened up and began to look for any flaws.

A voice disrupted her thoughts. "That's actually decent." He slid the paper over to his side of the table and looked at the bluebird she had drawn.

"Thank you," she said stiffly then snatched it back from his hands. He put his own up in surrender and grinned.

"I see it's true what they say about red heads. You all have a feisty attitude don't you?" Clary glared at him. He put an elbow on the table and leaned his chin on his hand inquisitively. "This is different. Usually girls are nervous around me or trying to get nearer. You seem to do neither." He leaned closer. "Do I make you uncomfortable, Clary?"

Clary stiffened and pulled back. "There's no reason for me to be uncomfortable," she lied. Despite her feelings toward him, she was still an artist and that part of her was pleading for her to look him straight in the face and just stare at his perfection. "Have you ever thought that maybe you're not every girl's type?"

He let out a short laugh. "Based on past experiences I would have to say that is a lie. I am every girl's type. But not every girl is mine," he added.

"I think I can guess which are your type," she said, imagining girls like Aline who was at the moment ogling Jace from where she sat in the row behind them.

"I'm actually not that predictable. You would be surprised to find out what type of girls I like," he said with an amused tone.

"I - " Clary started, ready to tell him what she really thought, but then stopped herself. Why was she having a conversation with Jace? And especially about this topic? She didn't want to know him."You know what? I don't really care what types of girls you like. Now if you would please stop bothering me, I would like to finish my drawing." With that she pushed herself even farther away from Jace and continued her art.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see him looking at her in confusion. Clary felt her cheeks go red. She felt she was coming off as irrational to Jace and he probably thought she was weird, but she didn't want to talk to him and if she had to distance herself in this manner then so be it.

A few minutes later, the bell rang and Clary all but ran out. She could feel Jace's eyes on her back, but she resisted the impulse to turn around and glare at him. She hurried along to the front of the school where she knew Simon was going to be waiting for her. When she saw him he was already waiting with Eric and the guys.

She grabbed him by the arm. "Let's go, Simon."

He went along without resisting, the rest following behind. "Hey, Clary. Why are you so eager to leave?"

"I have to do stuff at home," she muttered wanting to get away from school and Jace. Sure, he was hot, but she wasn't into the arrogant type, especially not to the extremity that Jace was. And the way he was leaning so close to her did make her uncomfortable. She didn't want to be associated with a guy who was probably a player and rude to everyone he met.

"Alright. Hey, do you think Isabelle might like me?" Simon asked.

Clary rolled her eyes and laughed. "Only way you'll know is if you ask her out."

He looked stricken. "I...uh...I'll think about it."

Even though Isabelle was related to Jace, she was glad that she now had her as a friend. Sure, all she seemed to talk about was guys and clothes, but she seemed like a good person and Simon apparently liked her. She just hoped that having Simon, Magnus, and her new friends would be enough to make up for the fact that she would have to endure Jace and his inappropriate commentary for the rest of the year.


	3. Bipolar

_Disclaimer: Anything from the Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare_

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><p>Clary was having a fairly good day at school. Teachers were mostly just trying to get the students adjusted to their new classes and explaining what was going to be occurring throughout the year so she didn't have much work to do. She was enjoying it that way, too, because she knew that as soon as the next week started they were going to be bombarded with homework.<p>

On the way to her third period class she heard some girls giggling next to her. She turned to see what they were looking at and scowled. Down the hallway, walking in her direction was Jace. He was grinning at people and high-fiving guys as he passed them. On his arm was Kaelie, whom Clary referred to as the head of the Slut group: the top three cheerleaders at school.

Clary watched as Kaelie twirled a lock of long, blond hair around one finger and pressed herself closer up to Jace. She gazed up at him longingly. Clary nearly gagged. As they got closer, Jace saw her looking at them and smirked. She raised her eyebrows like saying _really?_ She couldn't believe that he was already with her, that and that he was apparently already known by everybody in the entire school. _I guess that happens when you got the looks of a Calvin Klein model_, she thought.

By the time they passed her, she realized that watching them had made her late to class. She groaned and walked in, trying to keep the teacher who was writing something on the board from seeing her, and took her seat next to Simon.

He raised an eyebrow speculatively. She frowned. She hated that he could do that and she couldn't. When she tried, she looked constipated. She waved him off, not wanting to tell him why she got caught up in the hallway knowing that he'd be disappointed to know that she was even noticing Jace.

**.**

"Clary, you looked gorgeous yesterday with your purple dress and black tights, but now..." Isabelle trailed off, looking at her with what seemed like pity. Clary fought the urge to glare at her. She had woken up late that morning and just put on some simple skinny jeans, a tight black shirt, and her old worn out chucks.

"C'mon, Izzy. I don't look that bad," she said, adopting the nickname that Alec sometimes called her. "I was just limited on clothing this morning," she explained. Having only Luke and Max around, she didn't really go shopping a lot and only went when it was absolutely necessary.

"I've offered to spice up her wardrobe, you know add a little style and pizazz, but she always refuses," Magnus pouted which made Alec smile at him shyly. Clary guessed that he still wasn't comfortable with his sexuality, but being around Magnus long enough would surely get him out of that phase. Soon, he'd be throwing glitter around and talking non-stop, too. Clary smiled at the image of a bedazzled Alec.

"Do– do I have something on my face?" Alec asked worriedly, bringing his hand up to his face, after noticing Clary staring at him.

Magnus narrowed his eyes at Clary. He turned to Alec, taking his hand with his own and brought it down. He looked him in the eyes. "All I see is a gorgeous boy," he told him with a cheesy smile and then pecked him on the lips.

Simon gagged. "Ugh, I can't believe I have to watch this. Now I can't eat my food," he said, pushing his tray of tater tots and cheese pizza away. "And that's saying something considering I didn't eat anything this morning."

Isabelle glanced at him with a grin. "Would you still say that if it was you in their place instead? With the girl of your dreams?" she added.

The top of his cheekbones started turning red. He tried to look away nonchalantly and failed. "Well, I wouldn't be all lovey-dovey, if that's what you're asking," he muttered. Clary stifled a laugh, knowing that he was probably thinking about how he would be exactly like that with Isabelle.

Isabelle studied him and when she looked satisfied she went back to Clary. "Anyway, Clary, about your problem."

"I didn't realize I had one," she said popping one of Simon's discarded tater tots into her mouth.

"Yes, and a big one at that. We are on top. Which means you can't be walking around with the types of clothes that just anyone wears. And don't talk with your mouth full. I don't want to see what goes on in there." She grimaced.

"She does it all the time, so it's better to get used to it," Simon said, grabbing his pizza again despite his previous comment. It was hard to get a teenage boy to adapt to normal eating habits.

Clary ignored him. "Well, it's not like I'm going to magically come up with a bunch of money that I can spend on fashionable clothes," she argued.

"Anything can happen, honey," Magnus said. "Be it magically or by getting off your skinny little ass and getting a job."

"Ew, jobs are totally overrated," Isabelle told Magnus. Her face slowly lit up as an idea came to her. "Okay, you asked for it Clary. You are going shopping with me. Today after school."

Both Simon and Magnus laughed. "Good luck with that," Simon said.

"Yup, I've tried taking her with me a couple of times and she always complains after we go to the first store," Magnus added.

"That's different, Magnus," Clary explained. "You always take me to the weirdest stores." She recalled the time she had gone with him, expecting the mall, but instead arrived at a small store with clothes from, what she believed, a different era. Afterward, they had gone to a crafts store so that he could pick up accessories to decorate the clothes he bought. Clary then swore to never go shopping with him again.

"Well, you're coming whether or not you want to. We're just going to the mall, anyway." Isabelle grabbed her arm and smiled like the Cheshire cat. "Oh my god, we're going to have so much fun!"

Clary groaned inwardly, knowing that she was going to have a long day.

Clary was going to try to get out of shopping with Isabelle during Modern Lit. but as soon as they got in the teacher gave them the book for their class reading and they were all forced to read silently. Clary sighed, it was only for a few hours. How bad could it be?

**.**

Clary had been trying to avoid thinking about her last class and who she was going to see in there, but whenever she had a spare moment her mind always went back to the blonde haired boy.

She took her seat in the front of the class again, waiting for everyone else to arrive. She took out her sketchbook and started doodling to pass the time. After a few seconds, she heard the chair next to her grind against the tile floor and Jace sat down. Suddenly, she felt one of his fingers trail from her shoulder down to her hand.

She looked up, startled that he would do that and ready to lash out at him, but froze when she saw who was there. She was expecting Jace and was surprised to see black eyes staring back at her instead of golden.

"What are _you_ doing here?" she asked Sebastian, not kindly. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a very irritated Jace.

"Yeah, what _are_ you doing here, Verlac?" Jace asked. He stood in front of the table. Clary hadn't even noticed when he had gotten there and was stunned to hear the anger in his voice.

Sebastian whipped his head forward, a grin slowly beginning to spread across his face. "Well, Lightwood. I'm surprised to see you here. I didn't know you were in this class." By their tone, Clary could tell that they had met before and weren't exactly buddies.

"Not that it should matter to you, but yes, as it so happens, I am. And you are actually occupying my seat, at the moment." Even though his voice was hard, his face was surprisingly calm, which for some reason scared Clary. It reminded her of a lion when it was about to pounce on a gazelle. He gestured for Sebastian to move and said, "Now if you would please, you can leave now."

Sebastian pretended to think about it. He shook his head. "No, I don't think I will. I like this seat, right next to Clary. I can stay here." He adjusted himself to sit more comfortably.

The tension between them was becoming extremely awkward for Clary. She decided to intervene. "Just leave, Sebastian. If you stay any longer you're going to be late to class." She knew that if they kept on provoking each other a fight was sure to ensue. And if one did she also knew that she wouldn't jump in and try to separate them. With their size and strength, it was very likely she'd come out with multiple bruises.

"I'm already in class. You see, it's possible to change classes within the first of week of school, so here I am," Sebastian replied, smugly, though he said it more to Jace than to Clary. Jace's eyes narrowed at him, cold and calculating. Slowly his face went back to the indifferent look he usually wore and the trademark smirk returned.

A few people had heard them talking and were staring, which was probably why Ms. Bray suddenly appeared right next to Jace. In one arm she cradled multiple containers filled with paintbrushes and in the other she had the actual paint. "Excuse me, is there a problem here?" she asked, her eyes lingering on Jace's before turning to Sebastian.

Sebastian, surprisingly, managed to look completely innocent. "Oh no, everything is absolutely fine." He grinned. "I was just having a chat here with my friends, Jace and Clary."

She looked wary. Turning to face them she asked, "Is that true?"

Before Clary could say anything, Jace answered. "Oh yes. Everything is just peachy here," he said with a convincing smile. "Sebastian and I go way back. We're just doing a little bit of catching up." Clary was amazed at how well at acting they both were. If it'd been her, she would've cracked on the spot and tattled already. In fact, that's what she was going to do before Jace had interrupted.

Satisfied with their answer she dropped the subject. "So you must be Sebastian. Well, you're lucky we had someone drop the class so now we have a spot available. You can sit behind Clary, next to Aline." She placed one of the containers on Clary's table and some paint before walking away, doing the same to the other tables.

Sebastian stood up and walked to his new seat, but not before sneering at Jace.

Jace slid into his with a triumphant grin.

"Listen, class. We are going to be making murals to honor some of the world's greatest artists. You have to make an outline of the artist you are assigned. I put the name of that artist under the containers that I put on your tables," Ms. Bray said. Clary checked under their container: Rembrandt. She showed Jace, who shrugged apathetically. "After you make the outline, I want you to paint them in with as many patterns and colors as you can think of." She went back to her desk, leaving them all to work.

"You make the outline. When you're done, we can do the patterns together," Jace said, without so much as a glance in her direction.

Clary rolled her eyes at him and sighed. "Already making me do all the work I see. Well, what else did I expect." She eyed him, ignoring her heart when it sped up. "You even look like a slacker."

He scoffed. "You can't know that. First off, it's not true. I am an exceptional student: perfect grades, attendance, _and_ I participate in school activities," he said, practically praising himself. Looking at her with amusement and crossed arms, he said, "What can I say? I'm good at everything I do." His gaze wandered down her entire body, stopping only once at her nearly non-existent chest and then came back up. He met her eyes and smirked. "But there is one thing I'm extraordinary at and it involves the cooperation of two people." He winked. Clary blushed, catching the innuendo.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Jace cut her off by putting his finger to her lips, immediately silencing her. She felt herself freeze, completely in shock by his closeness. He smiled. "Second, you're better at drawing than I am. In fact, art may be the only thing I'm not good at so it only makes sense that you draw the outline." He took his hand away and Clary let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

Deciding to ignore the first part he said, she mumbled a thanks and stood up. Trying to distance herself from him, she walked up to where they were supposed to get the giant sheets of white paper for their assignment. Whatwasthat_? Was he flirting with me?_Clary shook her head. One day she hates Jace and the next she's like all the other girls in school, swooning for him. She cleared her mind and after realizing that she had been gone for almost five minutes she went back to her desk. She noticed Jace was just as before, indifferent. She took a deep breath. _Good, he was joking_. She didn't know whether to feel good about that or disappointed.

"Took you long enough."

She narrowed her eyes. "You have legs and a heartbeat, you could have gone for it." Turning away before he could answer, she spread the paper on the desk and took out a pencil to start drawing Rembrandt. Luckily, there was a poster of him on the wall next to them so she could just copy from there.

After a few moments, she spoke, feeling the silence was too loud for some reason. "I didn't know you guys knew each other," Clary said. "You and Sebastian, I mean."

"We've certainly met before if that's what you mean."

"What else could I possibly mean?" she inquired, slightly exasperated. She erased part of what she had just drawn. _Jesus, the man's hair is nearly impossible!_

"Well, there's know and then there's _know_ know," he explained.

"That makes no sense." She shook her head. "It must be difficult knowing someone who is exactly like you."

He scoffed. Grabbing one of the paintbrushes, he said, "You are blind, Clary. He and I have nothing in common. He is the pauper, I am the prince."

Clary looked over her shoulder to make sure Sebastian hadn't heard. He wasn't in his desk. She looked around and finally found him and Aline on the floor on the other side of the room, arguing. Aline was clearly trying to draw the outline, but it looked like Sebastian didn't like how she was doing it.

His dark hair covered his forehead and spread out around his face, accenting his fair skin and black eyes. As he leaned forward, taking the pencil from Aline, Clary noticed how lean and muscular he was. If it wasn't for him being so annoying, she really would have gone out with him.

"He does not look like a pauper." But you, Jace, definitely look like a prince. Clary mentally slapped herself. Where were these thoughts coming from?

"Do you like him?" The hard undertone in his voice made her look up. He was rolling the paintbrush between his fingers and observing it. He looked very concentrated.

"Um, what did you say?"

He looked up. "Do you like him?" His voice sounded normal now. Did she imagine it?

She thought about it for a few seconds. "There might have been a time. But then I got to know him." She shrugged. Jace stayed silent after that. After a few moments she did one more stroke, and finally finished the outline.

"Okay, bell's about to ring. You can go ahead and pack up," Ms. Bray announced.

"Well, maybe tomorrow we can actually start painting," Jace said, slightly annoyed.

Clary looked at him warily. Now what? They were doing somewhat okay, so why was he annoyed? "Yeah, maybe the actual _teamwork_ will start tomorrow in this partner project, huh?" she snapped.

When she went to place the outline on one of the racks the bell rang. She turned around only to see that Jace had already left. On the table behind hers she saw Sebastian packing his things.

He looked up and smiled. "Hey Clary. Sucks that you have to sit next to Jace. But don't worry, I'm right behind you." She started walking towards her backpack. He grabbed it and handed it to her.

She shrugged. "It happens," was all she said. Or could say, for that matter. Why was Jace all bipolar, all of the sudden?

"Where are you going right now?" he asked, leading her to the door.

She grimaced inwardly, "I have to meet with Isabelle up in front. We're going to the mall."

"It happens," he repeated her words. Clary smiled, glad that there were times that she _could_ talk to Sebastian. But she'd have to leave soon or he'd start getting annoying again. "I'm going to football practice right now. I'm going to show Jace how to really tackle a guy."

"Jace? He's in football, too?" she asked, perplexed. So that's where they knew each other from. Football practice started during summer break.

"Yeah. He thinks he's the best on the field. But he won't ever be. Not with me on the team." Clary rolled her eyes.

"Yes, well, I have to get to Izzy. She'll get mad if I'm late." She started to walk in the other direction.

"I'll call you!" he yelled, when she was almost to the doors leading outside.

She stammered. "Uh, actually my phone got cut off. We'll just...talk later, I guess." She walked out before he could say anything back. She felt elated, but at the same time guilty. Her phone wasn't cut off, but she didn't want to have to talk to him later.

She found Isabelle with Simon, Matt, Eric, and Kyle.

"Really? You're in a band? And you never told me?" she heard Isabelle say as she approached them. Isabelle turned to Clary and frowned. "Why didn't you tell me Simon was in a band?"

Clary stifled a laugh. She pulled Isabelle down and whispered in her ear. "I think for a group to be considered a band they have to actually be able to play instruments well." Isabelle moved away, confused. She loved Simon and the guys, but their band needed major improvement, but she wasn't about to tell them to their face that they sucked.

"Hey Simon, are you coming with us?" Clary asked, hopefully.

"Oh, going shopping with the girls, Simon?" Matt said and the others laughed. Clary narrowed her eyes at him. Simon turned red.

"I can't, Clary. Sorry. I'm going to practice with the guys," he said.

"For what?" Isabelle asked.

"Well," Simon looked excited. "Eric got us a gig at a club."

"What? For real? What'd you do, bribe the owner?" Clary asked Eric.

He shot her a glare. "Funny. But actually he heard one of our recordings and he liked us so we're performing on Saturday."

"Oh my god, Clary. We have to go," Isabelle squealed. "I haven't been to a club in like weeks. I have to go out and do something."

Clary groaned. She'd heard enough of Simon's band and although she loved her best friend she didn't think she could sit through another of their performances. They were kicked out by the people at the club at the last performance they did. "I don't know..." she said. Isabelle growled. "Fine. We can go. Alright, Simon. I'll see you later." She waved goodbye at them and they walked away.

"Hurry up, Izzy. We have to catch the subway before it leaves."

Isabelle grimaced. "Ugh, no, we are not going on the subway."

"Are we walking?" she asked slowly.

"No! God, Clary. I'm rich, don't you think that I have a car? Or, well Alec does."

"Alec is taking us?" Clary asked, confused. She thought it was just going to be them two.

"No," Isabelle said, exasperated. "Magnus took Alec to his house and Jace is at football practice, so I get to take the car," she finished cheerfully. They started to cross the parking lot and came up to a sleek, black Chrysler 300. Isabelle unlocked the doors.

Clary gaped. "This is your car?" Not even if Luke saved up ten years of his paycheck would he able to buy this type of car.

"Yeah." She slid her hand across the hood and over to the door. "She's more my baby than Alec's. But I think Jace uses it the most, she added.

"I can totally see him driving this," Clary said, absently.

Isabelle stopped in the process of hugging the car and looked at Clary with her eyebrows raised. "You've met him?"

"Oh. Yeah, I have him for my sixth period. I forgot I didn't tell you that." She opened the passenger door and before climbing in she said, "And you're right, he is a total jackass. "

Isabelle climbed in after her and stared at her. "What is your sixth period?"

"Um, art." It came out more as a question. Clary looked around, taking in the beige seats and the shiny wood where the radio was. She couldn't believe this is what they drove in to school every day. She would die if she had that car. She could even smell Jace in the air. Sunshine. If sunshine had a smell.

"He became my partner after the teacher decided he had to be watched. I don't get him. Is he bipolar? Because seriously, he can switch moods in like less than a second. It's infuriating."

She looked back to Isabelle who was still staring at Clary, but this time with a smirk.

"I can't believe it." Clary heard her whisper. It was so low, she almost didn't hear it.

"Can't believe what?" she asked. She ran her hand along the arm rest, feeling the smooth leather. Everything was so authentic and new. She could only imagine how their house looked like.

"What are you talking about?" Isabelle stuck the key into the ignition and started the car.

"I thought you said something."

"Nope," she said, popping the p. She pulled down a little compartment in between the two seats and pulled out some huge sunglasses. She put them on, making her look like a bug. Clary laughed.

"You get weirder every day, Izzy," Clary said jokingly.

She laughed. "Without weirdness, life is boring."

**.**

Three hours later, Clary and Isabelle sat at the food court at the Fashion Show Mall. Clary looked disdainfully at the amount of bags that surrounded them at the small table. Isabelle had Clary trying on everything from short shorts to dresses and coats. Why did she even need coats right now? She bought almost everything that she tried on, which made Clary feel extremely bad.

"Are you sure we can't return some of these things?" she asked Isabelle, who was sipping at a Razzmatazz from Jamba Juice.

She sighed. "C'mon, Clary. Why can't you just enjoy the fact that you have all these new clothes."

"I appreciate you buying me them, but Izzy, it's $500 worth of clothes and shoes here! I rarely ever spend more than $50 when I come shopping and even then that's only like once a month."

"That's the thing," Isabelle said. "It shows," she stage whispered, widening her eyes.

Clary gasped. She narrowed her eyes. "Sorry, if we can't all be spoiled brats like yourself. I care about taking care of my money."

She rolled her eyes. "This is nothing right now. You know what? If it makes you feel better then I can take away half your clothes and give them to you in like a month. So then it's like we only spent $250 on you." She smiled. Clary knew that Isabelle wasn't going to let her return the clothes. She actually thought she was doing Clary a great big favor. Well, she was, but still. She didn't like feeling like she was getting charity.

"Fine," she mumbled. She heard a little beep noise and looked at Isabelle who was pulling her cellphone out of her purse. She checked it then looked at Clary with wide eyes.

"Uh, Clary." She smiled tentatively. "Seems like we're going to have to pick Jace up when we leave in an hour."

Clary groaned.

"Sorry. I thought he was going to get a ride with one of his friends, but he says he wants to eat Taki's so..." she shrugged.

"It's fine. You can just leave me off at my house after you pick him up."

Isabelle's eyes widened suddenly and a flirtatious smile replaced her worried one. Clary sighed. Leave it to Isabelle to completely abandon a conversation for a hot guy. She turned and looked up.

Staring at her was a boy of about her age with light brown hair and dark brown eyes. His skin was lightly tanned and he was wearing a shell necklace. He wore a button down shirt, close fitting jeans, and vans. He looked like a California surfer boy. And he was absolutely gorgeous. Clary could only stare. She felt there was something familiar about him, though.

"Ivan?" Clary asked.

He smiled, showing off perfect white teeth. "Is it really you, Clary?"

He spread his arms open.

She smiled and stood up, hugging her old best friend and former boyfriend.


	4. Ivan who?

_Disclaimer: Anything from the Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare_

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><p>He squeezed her one more time and then let go, but still held on to her hand. All the memories came rushing to Clary, their first kiss in Central Park, their first date where they went out to eat at a Panda Express. Then going to watch Dead Silence afterward where he awkwardly put his arms around her for the fist time. She remembered their laughs when they played Rock Band and she, on the guitar, would cheat by taking away his drumsticks so that he would lose. The countless hours they would spend just talking and hanging out on the rooftops at night to gaze at the stars.<p>

She felt tears well up in her eyes. He looked so different. Three years before, when they were in eighth grade, he'd dyed his hair black and it had almost completely covered his face. He used to call himself an emo loser. Clary smiled at the thought. He used to be shorter and lankier, but under appearances, he always held the same happy glint in his eyes.

He frowned slightly and moved to wipe away a tear that had fallen on her cheek.

"Clary? What's going on, are you alright?" Isabelle had gone into protection mode which made Clary giggle at the thought of a threatening Ivan. He was too nice to ever be considered dangerous.

Clary laughed. "I'm fine, Izzy. These are tears of joy." She turned to Ivan. "I missed you so much. You have no idea how much." She knew that she should be feeling anger, or resentment, but all she felt was happiness.

He smiled crookedly. "Really? Honestly, I thought you'd be mad and never want to see me again, but I missed you, too. And I tried to call, but you're phone was always disconnected or something."

She blushed. "We moved. I can't believe I forgot to tell you," she lied. In truth, she had done it deliberately. She wanted to forget Ivan, but seeing him then made her realize that maybe that wasn't for the best. He would have never done that to her. He would have never tried to forget her. And apparently he didn't.

Isabelle cleared her throat, annoyed.

"Oh sorry, Izzy," Clary said hurriedly. "Ivan, this is my friend, Izzy. Izzy, this was my first boyfriend, Ivan."

"Hi," Ivan said smiling widely, his straight, white teeth gleaming in contrast to his tanned skin.

Isabelle's eyes widened to the point where it looked like they were going to pop out. "_You're_ her first boyfriend?"

Slightly uncomfortable, he nodded. "Yeah. Firsts in everything, I think." He shrugged. Clary nodded her assent as well.

Isabelle turned to her in confusion. "Why'd you guys break up? I mean, obviously it wasn't some huge fight or anything seeing as how you two just hugged like you guys were best friends."

Clary's face turned red. She looked at Ivan for help. She didn't want to explain that there had been a fight and she was the one that had pretty much started it.

He glanced at her and understood. After so many years, he could still read her like an open book. He stuck his hands in his pockets and grimaced. "That would be my fault. I move around a lot, usually just around here, but then a few years ago my mom decided that she wanted to go to Miami. So we did. And Clary and I...well...we kind of had to break up."

Isabelle scoffed. "Yes, you _had_ to, considering there was no possible way you guys could have kept in touch. You know, since email, snail mail, cell phones, none of those things are around anymore."

Clary didn't like Isabelle's sarcasm so in order to shut her up and avoid talking any further about that topic she ignored her. To Ivan she asked, "When'd you come back, anyway? I thought for sure you were leaving for good."

Ivan looked at her half in amusement and half in disbelief. "You should know this Clary. New York is home base. We always come back. And about a week ago, I guess."

"If that's so, then why haven't we seen you at school?" Isabelle asked dubiously. Clary was getting annoyed at her. Here she was finally seeing her old best friend and Isabelle was treating him like a criminal. "Assuming you go to Shadow High School, that is."

Ivan laughed. "You always knew how to choose them, Clary. And I will be going," he added in Isabelle's direction, to which she rolled her eyes. "Tomorrow. I was behind on my immunizations, so they didn't let me go in earlier."

Clary shook her head. "I still can't believe you're back. It's been so long."

He sighed deeply. "Yeah, my mom finally got homesick. I was homesick the entire time," he added.

Isabelle's phone beeped again. Clary knew what that meant. Isabelle looked at Clary with a grimace.

"It's time?"

Isabelle sighed. "Yeah. Let's go then."

"You guys make it sound like you're on your way to your death," Ivan observed.

"It could be." Clary didn't want to leave after such a short conversation with Ivan. She wanted to talk to him longer, but that would be impossible with Isabelle there. "We have to go," she said mournfully. She hugged Ivan again. When she stepped back, she said, "It was nice seeing you again, Ivan. I'll see you at school maybe?" He nodded vigorously and asked for her number. They exchanged their numbers and Clary and Isabelle started walking away.

"Nice to meet you, Isabelle!" Ivan yelled as they neared the doors.

"Yeah, you too," she said halfheartedly.

"You don't like him?" Clary asked.

"Actually, I do," Isabelle quipped. Clary was confused. Maybe that's how Izzy was with everyone.

**.**

Jace crouched into position and waited for the coach to blow the whistle. His muscles were aching, but he had Sebastian in front of him now and he couldn't waste the opportunity. Sebastian watched him through slitted eyes and spat, to which Jace smirked. He could tell that Sebastian didn't like him, probably because of Clary, but he didn't care. He just wanted to slam him down.

The whistle echoed across the field followed by the "hike!" that signaled for them to go into play. Jace pushed through the balls of his feet and hit Sebastian straight in the chest with the force and grace of a lion. Sebastian stumbled a bit, but held his ground pushing at Jace with almost the same force.

All around them the other guys were running and tackling.

"Give it up, Lightwood. Just admit it, I'm stronger and better," Sebastian grunted.

Jace scoffed at his words and pushed harder. "It seems as though you've completely missed these last practices we've had where you've yet to win against me."

With that, he finally gained the upper hand and Sebastian fell to the floor. Jace looked down triumphantly with his smirk plastered across his face.

"Tell me, who is better and stronger now?" Sebastian narrowed his eyes at him and stood up, dusting off the fake grass from himself.

"All right, boys. Practice is over. I want you guys to hit the gym more, run a few laps, lift weights. I'm not satisfied with what I saw today, except for you Lightwood," the coach said. He turned to the players who were sweating and panting like they'd just run a 24 mile marathon. "You guys should take some lessons from him. You're dismissed." He started to walk off the field toward his office inside the locker room.

A few of the guys glared at Jace. He shrugged and ignored them. He went over to where his stuff lay next to the bench and sent Isabelle a quick text telling her to come pick him up already. He hoped she would hurry up, he wasn't in the mood to be waiting for her. For some reason, he was mad at the world. He took a swig of his water bottle when he heard a voice he had come to hate.

"Don't take your anger out on me just because Clary likes me and not you," said the annoyingly taunting voice.

"I wouldn't say that, exactly. You must be pretty blind if you can't see that she doesn't like you," he lied. Clary had pretty much confirmed that she did like Sebastian in Art. That bothered him for unknown reasons and he'd tried all day to get the feeling away.

"Anyway, who doesn't like this?" he asked, gesturing to himself. He turned to the girls who were on the bleachers, Aline, Kaelie, and Macie, and winked at them. They giggled in response and looked away embarrassed. Only Kaelie was daring enough to blow a kiss at him. On the outside he grinned, but on the inside he was slightly disgusted. He knew she was the clingy type, but those were usually the only ones who gave themselves up completely.

Sebastian scowled, but then lightened up and said, "Hey, you can keep them. I just want Clary."

"Well, no one's fighting you for her so go at it. I don't want her," he said dismissively and walked away. Sebastian said something that sounded like a sarcastic sure, but Jace didn't stay to find out.

He spotted the car parked right in front of the stairs of the school and hurried over. Physical activity always made him hungry and he couldn't wait to get to Taki's. He neared the car and immediately went to open the passenger door. Normally, he would fight with Isabelle so that he could drive, but that day he just wanted to get his food and go home.

When he opened the door he was greeted by red hair and green eyes. He held the door open for a fraction of a second before asking, "What is this?"

"More like _who._ And this is Clary," Isabelle said. Clary wasn't looking at her, but Jace was so she couldn't see the smirk that Isabelle had on her face. Jace glared at her, avoiding Clary's gaze.

"I know who she is. What I mean is, what is she doing in our car? And in my seat, for that matter." Clary's face only got redder and redder with every word he said. He knew he was being rude, but once again he didn't care.

Isabelle rolled her eyes. "We went shopping, Jace, and now I'm giving her a ride home. It isn't her fault that you decided you didn't want to go with your sluts or get a ride from someone else," she said, exasperated.

"Can you guys please stop talking about me like I'm not here," Clary said timidly, trying to sound more confident, but failing. Jace finally looked at her and was amazed at how just the sight of her made him feel a little better. It was weird, he thought, how she could have this effect on him even though he's only known her for two days. And even then it was only for an hour a day. "It's fine. I'll go in the back. I'm being dropped off first and it would just take up time for you to switch seats afterward."

Isabelle tried to object, but Jace held out his arm in a sweeping gesture, motioning for Clary to move. She unbuckled her belt with great show and stepped out, frowning at Jace.

As soon as they settled in and drove away, Isabelle spoke up. "So Jace, why didn't you tell me you knew Clary?"

He waited a few seconds before he spoke. "One, I didn't know you knew her. Two, I didn't think it was important," he said nonchalantly. Isabelle shot him an amused look. Jace looked away towards the window. They were passing the streets with unusual speed. Usually the traffic was slow and unbearable, but at the time it was as though half of New York decided to stay in and avoid the streets.

Both Clary and Jace stayed quiet. Isabelle made a few attempts at conversation, but after seeing that neither of them were going to talk, she stopped. "I wish Alec and Magnus were here," she muttered. Jace smiled inwardly. He'd only met Magnus a few times, but he knew that he could probably carry an entire conversation with himself without caring about anyone else's input.

After just a little while, they arrived at a small, two story house. The lawn was neatly trimmed and there was a row of flowers lined up against the wall. It was a pale peach color, but it still managed to look somewhat okay.

The house's door opened and out came a small boy with brown hair and glasses. He smiled when he saw Clary step out of the car and ran up to hug her.

"Hey, Max," she smiled at him, before dislodging him from herself.

Isabelle and Jace looked up at her inquisitively.

"Hey Max, this is my friend Izzy." She smiled. "And Jace," she said blandly. Jace exhaled exaggeratedly. Obviously the friend part didn't apply to him either. He felt a small twinge in his chest, but decided to disregard it. Maybe he was getting sick. "This is my brother Max," she told them.

"Hi Max!" Isabelle said.

"Hey Max. I'm Clary's friend too." Jace smiled when he saw Clary look at him in disbelief. He mock whispered, "I think she likes me." He waggled his eyebrows and Max laughed.

Max looked up to a blushing Clary. "I think she does, too," he mock whispered back.

"You have to go inside already, Max," Clary said abruptly, grabbing him by the shoulders and turning him around. "Bye, Izzy. Jace," and started walking away.

"Buh-bye, Izzy and Jace!" Max shouted.

"Wait, Clary! You forgot your stuff," Isabelle said, getting out and walking to the back of the car.

Clary groaned and let Max go. He ran into the house and Clary walked back. She and Isabelle grabbed some bags from the trunk and went to take them into the house. Jace stared at their retreating figures. They were so different. Isabelle was tall and curvy with long black hair and a smooth white complexion. Whereas Clary was short and although she had curves, they were less defined. Her red curls frizzed around her head uncontrollably and she had freckles on her nose and cheeks. But they were both still beautiful in their own way. Jace stunned himself. Since when did he start thinking of Clary as beautiful? Since when did he even start to think of her? Maybe he _was_ coming down with some type of flu or something. Something that made you delusional.

He shook himself out of his meandering thoughts and forced himself to think of nothing.

A few seconds later, he saw Clary standing in the door and Isabelle coming back to the car.

She turned around and yelled, "Hey, Clary! Can you tell me more about Ivan later?" Clary froze and her eyes flickered to Jace briefly before going back to Isabelle. Slowly, she nodded.

"Yeah. Maybe tomorrow. See ya." She closed the door and Isabelle was soon sitting next to him again.

They started driving to Taki's and after a few moments a silence, Jace finally said, "Who's Ivan?"

Isabelle pursed her lips and had a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I will tell you that as soon as you tell me what you think of Clary."

"What I think of Clary?" He furrowed his brow. "She's an art geek and she's weird. Now tell me."

"Ah-ah. That may be true on some level, but you know there's more to that."

"Not really." His delusional thoughts were going to remain his own until he figured out how to get rid of them. He shrugged. "I've known her all of two days, Iz. I just know that she likes art and apparently she has a little brother."

"Is she the red head you were talking about yesterday?" Jace thought back to the day before when he was complaining about Clary to Isabelle and Alec. He was telling them about how Clary had just dismissed him as though he were some lower level guy and hadn't even paid attention to him. It frustrated him that she didn't care to know about him like everyone else did. He was used to attention, not being ignored.

"Maybe. That's not the point. I already told you what I think of her so tell me, who's Ivan?" he persisted. He didn't know why he wanted to know. He just did.

"Oh, nobody really," she said teasingly. "Just her first love and all who has returned to claim her." Jace stilled. "I have a feeling that she doesn't mind being reclaimed either. You should've seen them at the mall," she continued. "I mean, first of all, the boy is drop dead gorgeous. And second, he has this aura that's like amazing. And he was looking at her like he was Jack and she was Rose, you know. Or Romeo and Juliet and all that." She gripped the steering wheel. "I don't know. I think it would be amazing if they got together again," she sneaked a glance at Jace, who was looking straight forward, expressionless.

He didn't want to hear about this, but he couldn't bring himself to stop Isabelle from talking.

"I didn't ask for their entire back story, Isabelle. I just wanted to know who he was. He seems boring, though, especially if he likes Clary. I don't understand why so many guys want her. She's not very special. Or all that hot, either."

She snorted. "Yeah, like Karly is so special, right?"

"It's Kaelie, and she is special. In bed." He grinned. He'd met Kaelie when she showed up with Sebastian one day over the summer for football practice. Since then, they'd become something of a couple. Or friends with benefits, he wasn't sure yet.

"Eww, Jace. I don't want to know about that."

He shrugged and allowed a small smile to slip through. "Hey, you asked in which way she was special. I just told you. Don't ask if you don't want to know the answer." He was trying to get back into his old self, but he still felt something tugging at his chest. He should really go to the doctor and get that checked out.

"Whatever. I know there's something about Clary you're not telling me," she said as they pulled into Taki's parking lot.

"Think whatever you want, Iz. I don't like Clary. She's definitely not my type. I'd rather go out with an electric eel than her." They stayed silent for the rest of the evening, both refusing to believe the other.

**.**

Clary was excited that Ivan was going to school with them. Simon was also excited when he saw Ivan. The three of them had been a best friend trio and they had always hung out. Unfortunately, she had no classes with him. In Miami they had different class requirements and since he was there for the first two years of high school he had to take some freshmen and sophomore classes to catch up.

He did walk her to most of her classes, though. They talked about things like, how Max and Luke were doing, Ivan's three year old little sister that Clary had never met, and school things like their classes and how much it sucked that they had no classes together so they couldn't copy each others homework. They only avoided one topic and that was anything that had to do with their break up. Clary didn't want to taint their new relationship with their old one so they had promised to just not talk about it.

"I can't believe I missed so much. And Max is so big now. And so much like you," he joked, referring to all the Manga he read, just like Clary. She elbowed him in the ribs. He laughed and elbowed her back, but softly enough so that he didn't hurt her. He was always so nice and generous to others. Unlike someone else she knew.

All week long Ivan had been walking her to her classes and right before Art he would hug her and tell her that he would see her after class and he would always be there on time. Jace would just glare at them. He would talk to her sometimes in class, but mostly it was just to say something inappropriate or rude, sometimes both. She was starting to dislike him more and more every day.

"Don't be mad because he can appreciate fine literature and you can't," she said.

He smiled. "Manga is not literature."

"It can be if you read it in a certain way," she argued.

He laughed and pulled her in for their hug. "You're right. Only Clarissa Fray could find a way to read a comic book and turn it into literature."

"Of course, I'm always right," she said proudly.

"That you are." She smiled and finally let go. "See you after class." He waved good bye and walked away. She stepped into class and found Jace already at his seat.

"Say good bye to lover boy already?" he asked, with a superior tone. She rolled her eyes and ignored him. Every time he saw them together he would always say something demeaning about Ivan. It bothered her to no end. "Are you sure he's not gay? I mean, he's always nice. He dresses way too fashionably and I think he cares too much about his hair," his tone drifted off into a contemplating one. "Maybe you just want to make it seem like you're dating so that Sebastian will leave you alone, unless, of course, you want to have them both on you."

"Shut up, Jace. I don't want to hear anymore of your stupid commentary and for your information me and Ivan are just friends." He didn't say anything to that so Clary looked over to see if he had even heard her. The corner of his mouth tipped up when he saw her staring at him. She looked away quickly, knowing her face would heat up if she looked any longer. She didn't say anything for the rest of the period.

**.**

"So yeah, Clary. You should totally come over to my house and I can fix you up for tomorrow," Isabelle said excitedly. "Don't bother bringing any clothes, I still have the ones I bought you so you can wear something from there."

"What is she talking about?" Ivan asked. He put an arm around Clary's shoulder. By any other guy she would have shrugged it off, but this was Ivan and...well, it was Ivan.

"Oh, I forgot to ask you, I -" Clary was cut off by Jace including himself in her circle of friends.

"Don't stop the conversation just because I'm here. I know my presence can be extremely intimidating seeing as how I'm so much better looking than all of you, but please proceed," he said arrogantly. Clary scowled. Whenever he was around, she seemed to roll her eyes and scowl more.

"You may be better looking than them, but you're no match for my glamorous self and my dear Alec," Magnus said, holding Alec's hand. His cat eyes seemed to challenge Jace to say otherwise.

"You're biased because you're conceited and you're dating Alec. To everyone else, I'm the better looking one here." Alec pretended like they weren't talking about him.

Clary noticed Ivan looking at Jace with a strange expression.

She turned to Ivan. "Forgetting about Jace, like I was saying, Simon's band is doing a gig tomorrow and I was wondering if you wanted to come with me," she said. She could feel Jace's gaze on the back of her head but she refused to look at him.

"Yeah, and it'll be superfun. You'll love it," Isabelle added. She clung on to Simon's arm and he stiffened noticeably. Clary stifled a laugh. Simon was so obvious with his emotions when it came to Isabelle.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say _super_fun, but it'll be alright," Simon said.

"If it involves you, it'll probably be super boring," Jace said, with a blase expression, like it pained him to be associated with this group of people.

"No one included you in this conversation, Jace, so please just," Clary made a zipping motion with her hands. He smiled and brought his hands up in surrender. She rolled her eyes. There she goes again, she thought.

Ivan's smooth, deep voice said, "Hey, if I get to go with you, then it'll probably be awesome. So yeah, I'll go," he smiled down at her and kissed her forehead. She was shocked. She thought they were going to just be friends and friends didn't do that, did they? Clary felt her face go red as they all stared at her. Everyone had the same expression on their face, amusement, except for Jace, who wasn't holding back the intense glare directed at Ivan.


	5. Clubbing

_Disclaimer: Anything from the Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare._

* * *

><p>"1, 2, 3, 4!" Ms. Malone, the dance teacher, yelled. "And now, shuffle!"<p>

Clary lifted one foot up while sliding the other toward her and then repeated with the other foot, successfully shuffling. It wasn't necessarily a hard move, but making it look smooth and incorporating the arms was making it a little more difficult.

The chorus to Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO came in and everyone jumped to the opposite direction and kept on shuffling. Clary looked at Isabelle, who was behind her. She had a smile on her face and acting like she was skipping through a field of roses. Meanwhile, Clary was sweating and panting. It only made sense after almost three hours of practice.

Jace staring at them and smirking every time Clary looked at him didn't help her racing heart either.

They were practicing on the track while the football team practiced on the field. Clary tried hard to avoid his gaze.

The song ended and a few girls rubbed their legs, trying to sooth their sore muscles. Everyone was tired, but they had to do overtime practice for the homecoming game that was coming up.

"We're done for today, but I also want you all to practice for the assembly in two weeks," Ms. Malone shouted. A few girls went to talk to her while others started to leave.

Isabelle walked up to Clary, drinking out of a pink water bottle. Clary wiped the sweat off her forehead with a little towel as she held her hand out for Isabelle to give her the bottle.

Isabelle sneered. "Ew, germs. How do I know you don't do nasty things with your mouth?"

Clary grinned. "Not everyone is like you, Iz. I'm still innocent," she joked.

Isabelle regarded her from head to toe. "You're right, here you go," she said as she handed it over.

"I don't know if I should be offended or not," Clary said absentmindedly. She took a huge sip from the bottle and handed it back to Isabelle. A thought occurred to Clary. "Listen, Iz, I know how you can get so can we please keep everything PG today?"

Isabelle gave her a confused look. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Yeah, me neither, what are we talking about?" Jace asked nonchalantly. Clary hadn't even noticed him approaching them. To her it was a feat considering his torso was bare, his shirt hanging over his shoulder. He smirked at Clary and gave her a knowing look, as though he knew she was admiring his abs. "Like what you see?"

She glared at him.

He snatched Isabelle's water bottle from her hands and downed the rest of it. Clary tried to ignore the fact that her lips had just been on that same bottle where Jace's lips were now on.

"You look very manly, Jace, with that pink water bottle," Clary pointed out.

"Why, thank you. I've been told I can make anything look manly," he quipped with a smile.

"I have a picture in my bedroom that says otherwise," Isabelle taunted. It was Jace's turn to glare at her.

"I burned all of them," he said menacingly. "It's impossible that you could still have one."

"What was the picture of?" Clary asked. It must have been something very embarrassing if Jace was reacting this way. He rarely ever showed any emotion other than boredom and superiority.

Isabelle and Jace were in some type of staring contest. Isabelle pulled away first.

"Oh, nothing, just a little silly thing we did last year." She smiled at the memory. She turned to Clary. "Anyway, what were you talking about earlier about keeping something PG?"

Clary glanced at the parking lot and saw Luke's truck already parked there. "Forget it. We'll just talk about it later when I go to your house."

Jace, who had been admiring some girls running the track, turned suddenly.

"Are you trying to stalk me, Clarissa, and you're using our poor Isabelle to do it?" He shook his head ruefully. "Oh, the lengths girls will go to these days just to get close to me."

Clary, fed up with Jace's cockiness, snapped back. "Actually, Isabelle practically begged me to go to her house which makes me believe that maybe you had something to do with it. Maybe you're the one who's trying to get close to me."

"I did not!" Isabelle scoffed. They both ignored her.

"If I was trying to get close to you, believe me I'd have you already," Jace retorted.

Clary rolled her eyes. "I'll see you later, Iz. And _please_, Jace, I wouldn't want you even if you ended world hunger _and_ gave me ten million dollars." She turned to leave before she could register Jace's shocked expression.

She heard Isabelle's laugh as well as felt Jace's eyes on her back as she walked away.

What was it about Jace, that made her want to either yell at him or yell at all the other girls that were constantly whispering about him? It was weird. Usually she was always so calm, but whenever Jace came around it's like he brought out a more confident Clary. Irritation and annoyance can make even the shyest people speak up against it, Clary concluded as she got into Luke's truck.

"What's wrong?" Luke asked a few moments later as Clary fidgeted with the radio.

"What do you mean? Everything's fine," she responded, finally settling on an Indie station. She let the sounds of the guitar strums relax her.

Luke turned to look at her, eyebrows raised. "You usually always have something to say and now you've been silent this entire time."

"Is it a crime to be quiet every now and then?" she exclaimed. They both sighed. If it had been some other time they would have laughed at that, but she wasn't in the mood.

"I was just asking."

"Sorry, I guess I'm just exhausted from all the dancing we've been doing and then tonight I'm hanging out with Isabelle, Simon and Ivan and I'm going to have to dance more," she explained.

He turned onto their street, both getting out as soon as they parked in front of their house.

"I can always tell them that I've grounded you, that way you don't have to go and you don't feel bad either," he offered, trying to be a good parent.

Clary smiled faintly. "Thanks Luke, but no. I promised them I'd go and Simon will have my head if I don't show up." She laughed, remembering the time she got stuck in traffic and was late to one of his gigs. He had practically tackled her and then accused her of ditching him and being a horrible friend.

As soon as they opened the door Max ran into Luke, his brown hair bobbing up and down and his glasses crooked on his nose. Clary looked at them, they looked so similar and were alike in so many ways.

Luke smiled then detached himself and walked into the kitchen.

Max ran into Clary next, she stumbled back.

"Clary, I just read Naruto, and it's amazing!" he yelled, his eyes widening. Clary laughed at her overenthusiastic brother. At ten years old he was still childish, but soon enough he'd start to worry about things like looks and girls. She decided to cherish him while he was still at his innocent age.

"That's great, Max. Do you want to go to Forbidden Planet with me and Simon next week?"

He smiled as though he just found out he won the lottery. "Yes! And I found twenty dollars so I'll be able to buy a lot of things."

"Where'd you find that money?" Clary asked cautiously.

Max backed away slowly. "Around," he said.

"Max!" she yelled as he ran away, laughing.

She sighed and went to her room. She wasn't lying when she told Luke that she was exhausted, but she still wasn't sure if it was because of the dancing or because of something else. She wondered if there was such a thing as emotional exhaustion.

She sat on her bed and turned to her ultimate stress reliever: drawing.

She pulled out her sketchpad and her pencils, beginning to sketch.

**.**

An annoying buzz woke Clary up. She scrambled up searching for her phone, which was lying on her dresser. She stood up and grabbed it. New Message, it said. From Ivan.

_Hey, Clary, I'll be there in ten minutes :)_

Clary checked her clock. 6:30.

"I slept for three hours?" Clary muttered to herself, hastily brushing her hair. It's frizziness was not willing to cooperate with her. She looked like a troll doll. She rushed to the bathroom and splashed water on her hair and her face, hoping to take off any drool that might be visible on her face as well as flatten her hair.

She ran back to her bedroom to grab her things.

On the floor was a crumpled up sheet of paper from her sketchpad. She kicked it away. Every time she started to draw it would come out looking like Jace. Eventually she just tore it out of her sketchpad and threw it at the wall. He will not dominate my thoughts, Clary told herself.

She ran downstairs nearly running into Luke.

"Is that how you're going?" he asked, taking in her basketball shorts, t-shirt, and flats.

"Don't judge me, and Isabelle is going to 'fix' me up," she grumbled.

He chuckled. "I didn't mean it like that, but okay. Have fun and leave the volume up on your phone," he added sternly.

"Don't I always?" she yelled as she ran out of the door.

Ivan was already there in his Camaro. She jumped in and hugged him quickly.

"Am I in the right house, or why do you seem like you just ran here from down the block?" he inquired. He put the car into drive and started down the winding roads.

She punched him lightly. "Running down the stairs can be pretty strenuous."

"Especially for a dancer."

She rolled her eyes playfully.

"So what's up with you and Jace?" he asked out of nowhere. They had been driving in relative silence, enjoying the rock music blasting from his speakers. Clary became instantly alert.

"Nothing's up with me and Jace. He's just a completely arrogant ass. He thinks he's God's gift to earth, but I think otherwise. He's so...frustrating."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "So you don't like him?"

She shook her head. Why was he asking her this? "Not at all. He's just..."she trailed off at a loss of words. "I don't know. Look, let's stop talking about Jace. We're going to see enough of him tonight anyway."

She looked at him and noticed his lips in a tight line, staring ahead at the road. It must have been one of the few times she ever saw him not smiling.

They pulled up to a huge mansion. It had a driveway that was probably a mile long and there was a gate that you had to put a code to get through. Clary felt embarrassed of her house, suddenly. She loved her home sure, but seeing Isabelle's made it seem like she lived in a shack.

They passed by multiple lush gardens and in front of the house there was a water fountain.

"Are they billionaires?" Ivan asked in awe.

"Something like that," Clary answered.

They knocked on the door and Magnus answered.

He leaned on the doorway and eyed Ivan appreciatively. "If the amount of sexy boys in this house keeps going up like this, we'll have our own version of a playboy mansion."

Ivan blushed and looked away. Magnus smiled wickedly.

"What are you doing here, Magnus?" Clary asked.

He opened the door wider and ushered them in. "Seriously, your forgetful mind is troublesome." He took her by the shoulders. "Alec is my boyfriend," he said slowly.

She stepped away from his grasp. "I know that. I was just asking why you're here. Shouldn't you be off working or something?"

He waved her off. "I called in sick."

"You're not sick," she felt obliged to point out. He sighed deeply in response, but didn't answer her.

"Clary! You're here! It's about time, too. I thought you were going to give up on me and just not come at all."

"It was definitely tempting," she muttered.

"What was that?" Isabelle asked.

"Nothing." Isabelle grabbed Clary and started going up the stairs. She stopped halfway as though she just remembered something and turned around. Magnus had gone somewhere leaving Ivan all alone standing in the incredibly large foyer.

"Oh, hi, Ivan. Jace is over in the living room if you want to go with him since I'll be taking Clary from here and you obviously can't go up with us. Unless," she added, looking back and forth between Clary and Ivan, "you guys are comfortable with changing in front of each other."

Ivan opened his mouth to say something, but Clary interrupted. "No!" she exclaimed, turning bright red. "As friends we respect our privacy and stuff...and I don't think Ivan wants to be around hearing about girl stuff anyway." She smiled, but it came out more as a grimace. "Let's just go, Izzy."

"All righty, then. Have fun, Ivan," Isabelle called then proceeded to haul Clary up to her room.

As soon as Clary went into Isabelle's room she knew she was in for an extreme makeover. Apart from the clothes strewn all over the place and the exaggerated amounts of makeup on the vanity, there were also some clothes already laid out on the bed, which Clary guessed were the ones she was going to try on.

She groaned as Isabelle took her over to the first set of, dare she say, _skimpy_, clothes. She knew her PG talk with Isabelle would be futile.

**.**

He just sat there, staring mindlessly at the TV, with a soda in his hand, as though he belonged there. Every now and then he would run his hand through his filthy brown hair and laugh at something someone had said on a show.

Jace didn't even attempt to hide his staring. He didn't like Ivan. He was too nice, people liked him too easily, and he was probably the only competition he had at school. Though Jace was certain he was far more attractive than this Ivan, he couldn't help but wonder why Clary liked Ivan and not him.

"Tell me, why are you here again?" Jace asked, despite the fact that the show was still going on and Ivan seemed to be pretty absorbed in it.

He turned his stupid brown eyes toward him. "You should know, considering you were there. Clary invited me, remember? And Simon's my friend, too so I could've gone even if she didn't invite me." He shrugged.

His reasonable tone grated at Jace's nerves. "I recall her inviting you to the club, but she has no right to invite you into my house."

Ivan, whose leg had been bobbing up and down, stilled and completely turned away from the TV. "I'm sorry, Jace, but I don't think we've ever really talked to each other before, so I honestly don't know why you seem to hate me. You might think I don't notice, but I can tell that you're always glaring at me, especially when I'm with Clary," he added as an afterthought.

Jace sat up straighter, staring directly into Ivan's eyes. "I would hope you'd have noticed considering I wasn't trying to hide it and are you implying something about me and Clary? That is very distasteful, thinking I would hate you because of a girl. And then Clary, for that matter."

He shook his head. What is it about that girl?

"Clary is an awesome person," Ivan said coldly.

Jace sighed, he didn't really have it in him to fight with Ivan. He just wanted to enjoy the night. Ivan was just making it more difficult. "I never said otherwise."

Suddenly, Isabelle was in the middle of the room, wearing a blue dress and huge black heels, her hands clasped together and a devious look in her eyes.

"It's about time, Iz. I could have died out here in the amount of time you took doing whatever it is you were doing up there," Jace complained. He stood up.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I was making beauty up there and so now I present to you the lovely Miss Clary Fray," she announced. She held her arms out in a sweeping gesture.

Jace rolled his eyes but turned to see. His jaw practically dropped.

Standing in the doorway was Clary, but dressed in a completely different way than he was used to.

She wore a tiny green dress that ended halfway up her thighs, with holes on the sides, exposing the creamy skin from her flat stomach. The straps went around the back of her neck and it had some type of jewels on it making her look like she shined. Her fiery, red hair flowed down her back making her look amazing. Beautiful, Jace thought, absolutely beautiful. Even more so than Isabelle looked on her best days.

Clary's lips were pursed together and for the first time since he'd met her, he wanted to kiss those pouty lips. She met Jace's eyes for a fraction of a second and quickly looked away. He smiled to himself, she was nervous.

Magnus and Alec appeared, then, looking disheveled. Jace didn't have to guess to know what they were doing.

"My, Clary, I don't think I've ever seen you look so gorgeous. Isabelle you did an amazing job," Magnus commented.

"It's true, Clary. You look nice," Alec said.

"I know, isn't she awesome? I'm proud of myself," Isabelle appraised her.

Clary looked away, embarrassed probably, and spoke up. "We should leave, you guys. Simon will be mad if we get there late."

They all started walking out the door. Jace was the last to leave, he wanted to see Ivan's expression. He wasn't surprised. Ivan was openly admiring Clary and kept on stealing glances at her legs. Jace wanted to punch him.

They all hopped into the 300, Jace driving and Alec in the passenger seat. Since they were all so thin, the other four fit in the back perfectly.

They arrived at the club and noticed that it was pretty packed. They got in fast since Simon had gotten them passes. Jace didn't like him all that much either, but there were times when he turned out to be useful such as then. Clary left almost immediately along with Isabelle and Ivan to find Simon.

Jace found the bar as soon as he got in while Alec and Magnus left to dance. It was very fluorescent, even the stools, with a number of creatively shaped glasses and slutty girls behind the counter. They didn't card him when he asked for a Dirty Martini.

He felt two thin arms snake around his neck down to the front of his chest. He drank the martini while a voice whispered in his ear.

"Nice to see you here, I've been waiting," she whispered. Jace turned around.

Standing in front of him was Kaelie. She had on all white: white booty shorts, white halter top and white heels, perhaps to emphasize the fact that she was anything but pure.

She sauntered over to his lap and sat down, kissing up and down his neck. He put a hand on her back, partly to hold her in place, and the other part just because he wanted to feel her. She trailed wet kisses on his jaw, which led him to believe that she might be a bit drunk. He pushed her back. Sure enough, her eyes were red and her make up was a little smeared.

She smiled and opened her mouth to speak. Jace was hit with the stench of alcohol before she even spoke.

"Get off," he ordered. "Your breath stinks worse than trash."

She frowned. Pulling out her tiny little purse, she took out a piece of gum. She held it up. "See? Gum," she slurred. She sounded better when she whispered, Jace thought. She popped it into her mouth and began to chew. She got closer again. "Kiss me, Jace."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Isabelle coming out of a door, followed by Clary and Ivan. Isabelle looked at Kaelie with disgust, Ivan didn't see them. Clary scowled at Kaelie and avoided Jace's gaze, she just walked by as though he weren't even there.

"Hello, and welcome to Fort Cheyenne. My name is Simon and we are Millennium Lint," Simon announced from the microphone onstage. Jace was only paying half attention, his eyes following Clary as she weaved through the crowd, her hand in Ivan's. "I hope you guys enjoy the show," he said awkwardly.

They started playing some random song Jace had never heard of before. Kaelie resumed to smother Jace with her sloppy kisses. He'd had enough. He stood up abruptly causing Kaelie to almost fall.

"Jace! Be more careful, I was totally going to fall flat on my ass," she yelled as she stumbled to right herself. She tried to hold on to Jace's arm, but he pulled away.

"No one told you you had to sit on me," he snapped. "I'm not a chair." With that he walked away, going toward where Isabelle was since he had lost track of Clary.

"I thought she was going to suck off your face back there, Jace," Isabelle said, as he approached her. She giggled.

He scrunched up his face in distaste. "Have you been drinking, Iz?"

She laughed hysterically. "Oh gosh, Jace, Simon's band was handing out drinks to calm their nerves and I'll admit I had maybe two or three shots." She rolled her eyes. "You were drinking too, anyway."

He ignored the last part. "Did Clary drink, also?" He looked around for her. "Where is she anyway?"

"It seems like someone has become a very concerned guardian since we left him all alone," Magnus announced. He had appeared next to them. Isabelle stared at him, probably because he was shining like a disco ball. "And yes, my darling Clary seems to have had a few drinks." He pointed somewhere in the crowd.

Jace turned and there was Clary, dancing some type of mix between a shimmy and the shopping cart, while laughing very loudly. Ivan was laughing too and holding onto Clary's waist every time he had a chance.

Jace's fists clenched.

"Don't worry, Jace," Alec said. "Ivan's really cool. He'll take care of her." Jace shot him a glare, causing Alec to go completely still and silent.

"Jace just doesn't want to admit that he likes Clary," Isabelle confided. Jace ignored her again.

As soon as the song ended Clary started cheering. "Whoo! Simon and the band rocks! Let's have another song!" Then she started chanting encore. Isabelle, Alec, and Magnus started laughing as Ivan pulled Clary out of the crowd toward them.

"Oh God, you guys that was unbelievable! I didn't think their band could actually be good, but wow!" she said with wide eyes. "That was amazing." She turned to Jace. "Don't you think so?"

He was shocked for a second, but he regained his calm after a second. "They could've done better."

"Oh, you're always so pessimistic about everything but yourself," she complained. The band started playing another song, but it was slower this time. "I love this song!" She grabbed Jace's hand and started pulling him to the dance floor. The feeling of her hand in his was so overwhelming he didn't even notice everyone's shocked faces.

Clary put her hands around Jace's neck and started swaying. He put his own on her waist, feeling the cool skin there. He couldn't even process what was going on much less take in his surroundings, which was very unusual for him since he was always so alert and observant.

Her green eyes looked up at him and she smiled. He smiled down at her, too, pulling her closer to his body. His gaze lingered on her lips and for the second time that night, he wanted to kiss her.

"This seems so weird," she slurred. While Kaelie's breath had repulsed him, Clary's intoxicated him. She smelled like green apples. This close he noticed that she wasn't as drunk as he thought she was. She was tipsy at the most, but it was still enough to bring down her barrier.

"And why is that?" he asked.

She thought about it for a moment. "I don't know. This, us, it feels right, for some reason." She rested her head on his chest. Even with heels she still only barely reached his shoulders. He put his chin on her hair, reveling in the softness of it.

That is, until her words registered in his mind. Sure, he thought she was beautiful, but did he like her like that?

He pulled away. "Wait, did you say us together feels right?"

She looked up, slightly confused. "I think so," she said slowly. "Oh God," her eyes widened in realization. "No, I didn't mean it like _that_." They both backed away from each other at once.

"Well, that's good, because I certainly don't feel that way." He shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm not a relationship type of guy." He leaned in close to her ear. He couldn't help what he was about to say, sometimes it was as though his mouth and brain were disconnected, but he said it anyway. "But if you're suggesting that our bodies together feels right, then I'm all up for heading over to that supply closet." He gestured to a room on the other side of the club. "Or my room. Your choice."

She scowled and put her small hands on his chest, pushing him away. He stumbled back into some people. He didn't apologize. For such a small girl she sure did have a lot of strength. Or maybe it was the anger that was fueling her.

She growled. "Ugh, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Jace, I will never get with you, got it?"

"That's not what you thought just a few moments ago when you said, and I quote 'we're perfect together'," he taunted her.

"I did not say that."

He shrugged. "Close enough."

He could tell she was biting the inside of her cheek as she struggled to find what to do next.

"Screw you, Jace. Why don't you go find your slut if you want to fuck someone?" She stormed away, but instead of going to the others she left the club. He saw Ivan shoot him a glare and then follow Clary out the doors.

He sighed. Another screw up wasn't likely to affect his life, but then why did this time leave him feeling horrible and wanting to chase after Clary?

He shook his head to clear his mind and went off to look for Kaelie. He needed to relieve his stress and she was perfect for the task.


	6. Friends?

_Disclaimer: Anything from the Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare._

* * *

><p>After leaving the club, Ivan had caught up to Clary and together they took a cab all the way back to Isabelle's house, then he dropped her off at her house. Ivan had been silent the entire way, only asking once what had happened, but she didn't answer.<p>

The first Monday, Clary didn't go to school. She told Luke that she was sick and so she stayed in her room the entire day, only answering her texts and not when people called. She didn't want them to hear her voice all rough and scratchy from crying.

But going back to school was inevitable, so she put on a brave face and endured the next days, avoiding Jace as much as possible. It wasn't that hard.

Jace hardly paid attention to her, only every now and then did she catch him staring at her. When she did, memories of dancing with him, being so close to him, being in his arms, all resurfaced. And even though she tried to deny it, she did like it. It was her stupid mouth that ruined everything. Or better yet, Jace's. She knew he was a player, but to be treated like one of his sluts had made her chest ache and so she left before she could start crying right there and then.

She saw him everyday in lunch, each time with a different girl. The constants were Aline, Macie, and Kaelie; all three of them with their belt-sized skirts and overexposed cleavages. They disgusted Clary.

Clary was in her Modern Lit class with Simon and Isabelle, still trying to rid the images of Macie on Jace's lap while they tried to pretty much have sex in the cafeteria. It was filthy, the way his hands were under her 'skirt' and her shirt touching every inch of her fake skin while everyone looked on. And then Macie! Lifting her chest so much to his face that he was practically motor-boating her.

Where were the deans when they needed them the most? That type of PDA was a call for expulsion, even though the thought of Jace being expelled and her never seeing him again caused her to feel a little bad. Just a little, though.

Ms. Sanches was talking incessantly about her personal life, not that anyone cared, so Clary tried to tune her out.

"You know, there's a reason we're not supposed to know about teachers' personal lives. Her 'sexcapades' and teenage drinking problems are not things I want to be dreaming about when I'm going to sleep," Simon said with a grimace.

"You dream about Ms. Sanches." Isabelle stated. She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I didn't realize you were into older woman. I should have known."

"What? No," Simon exclaimed, his eyes bugging out. "It's just, you know, she's so vivid with her details and I don't know, these..." he shuddered, "images, just pop into my head."

"Undisclosed desires," Clary mused. "It's okay, Simon, your secret is safe with us."

"No! I like girls our age. In fact, I'm thinking about asking Maia out," he announced.

Isabelle straightened up in her chair and looked at Simon contemplatively. "Who is this Maia you're talking about?" she sneered.

"Is it that new girl in our history class?" Clary asked. He nodded. She had seen the pretty biracial girl, but she'd never noticed that Simon had apparently talked to her. "She just got here like two days ago, how do you know her?"

"Oh, we officially met downtown yesterday at that one weird comic book store. She's really cool. She likes Call of Duty, too." Simon had a dreamy look in his eyes and Clary smiled. Only Simon could fall in love with a girl simply because they liked the same video game.

"I like video games, too," Isabelle all but shouted. Both Clary and Simon stared at her in shock. "And comic books."

His eyes widened. "What are your favorites?" Simon asked vigorously.

"Uh, well, I- uh, haven't played or read in a while, so I think I'm a little outdated," Isabelle stammered, fidgeting with a lock of her hair.

In all the time that Clary had known Isabelle, she had never seen her be anything less that eloquent. Other than that night when she was drunk and stumbling all over the place, except now she was alcohol-free.

Clary couldn't believe that she hadn't seen it before. The night they went to see Simon play, that horrible night, Isabelle had been the one to suggest the drinks because she noticed Simon pacing and sweating like a pig. She went up to him and started to give him a massage, but Clary didn't think anything of it, at that point she was already on her third shot. Eric and Kyle had told her that she wouldn't even be able to handle half a shot so she tried to prove them wrong. Ivan had been the one to tell her that four was more than enough.

So it was true, Isabelle did like Simon. Clary tried to hide the huge smile that was threatening to appear on her face.

"Well, you should come over to my house some time and we could play," Simon suggested, a little too happy. He cleared his throat. "That is, if you want to."

Clary tuned them and Simon's attempts to be flirtatious out. She'd seen too many of his awkwardness over the years and she didn't want to witness it again in front of her.

**.**

Only one more class, she thought. Until she had to see him again.

"Apportez votre devoirs demain. Ne pas oublier!"

Clary ignored Madame Gayraud telling everyone not to forget to bring their homework the next day. She was upset after only ten people turned it in that day. Clary was sad to say that she was one of the ones that forgot.

"Hey, Clary," Ivan said, coming from around the corner. "Speak to me in french," he demanded.

"Um, bonjour?" It came out as a question, seeing as she had nothing to say, really.

"No, not that. I already know what that means."

They made their way toward her sixth period. She was dreading it, but by being with Ivan, it took her mind off of what might happen in Art. Or at least she hoped it would.

"Okay, so then what do you want me to say?"

He pursed his lips in thought. "How about...will you go out with me?"

Clary's heart raced. "I think it's – souhaitez-vous sortir avec moi? Why, do you have someone on your mind?" She clutched the strap of her backpack tighter, anticipating the answer. She would be lying if she said she didn't feel any jealousy towards her ex-boyfriend's new interest.

"Maybe." He spun around and faced her as they arrived at her class, his hair falling into his eyes. "I'm just waiting for the perfect moment and french being a romantic language and all, I thought I'd ask her in that language instead. Souhaitez-vous sortir avec moi?" he repeated. "Up my chances, you know?"

"Afraid of a little rejection, are we?" Clary felt her breath catch at the sound of his voice. Jace. He walked up behind her and then stood next to them so they created a little triangle. He put a hand on Ivan's shoulder, in mock comfort. "I hear it really sucks, but I wouldn't know, you know, being me and all." He shrugged.

He turned to Clary, his face devoid of emotion. "So, what's your answer? Yes, no, maybe later when you're not so desperate?"

"What are you talking about, Jace?" she practically spat his name. "And what do you want?"

He took a step back, his eyebrows raised. "Hey, I was just walking to class when I saw this cute little show." He gestured between her and Ivan. "Just thought I'd stick around to see whether or not you were going to accept and say yes."

Clary laughed harshly. "Ivan wasn't asking _me_ and didn't anyone tell you that it was rude to eavesdrop?" He laughed which made her mad. She crossed her arms, trying to stand up to him. It was hard, though, since every time she looked at him she wanted to get lost in his eyes. "Why don't you head on to class and leave me and my business alone?"

"All right, then." Jace passed by Ivan and patted him on the shoulder. "Good luck," he said, then went inside the classroom, but not before flashing Clary a taunting smile.

Clary turned to Ivan, who had been strangely quiet the entire time. "Sorry about him. He can be so infuriating sometimes. Actually, all the time." She sighed. "The bell's about to ring, you should leave before you're late."

"Yeah, I think I'll just- uh, see you later, then." Clary stepped closer to him and hugged him. He returned the hug, but tensely, Clary noticed. He let her go and walked away without looking back.

She walked into her class only to see Jace sitting on the desk with a half naked Aline on him.

"If I wanted to see something this sexual I could've easily looked through your backpack, Jace. I'm pretty sure you have some Hustler magazines in there." She hadn't meant to say that, but she was in a sour mood.

Aline took her disgusting lips off of Jace's neck and looked at Clary with barely concealed repulsion.

"Ugh, do you mind?" she sneered. Jace looked at Clary with a small smile and shrugged.

"Actually I do, since I need my desk and all." Clary pulled her seat out which clipped Aline on the knee.

"Ow!" Aline yelled, rubbing her knee. She leaned on Jace and looked up at him with pity."I feel so sorry for you Jace, having to sit next to _her._You should switch desks with Sebastian."

"Yeah, Jace, listen to her," Sebastian said from behind them. He eyed Clary appreciatively. "I think it'd be a fair trade. You get what you want and I get what I want."

Jace straightened up and gripped Aline by the shoulders, detaching her from himself. She protested a little, but went to her seat.

Jace looked Sebastian in the eyes and simply said, "And miss the great opportunity of sitting next to the endearingly sweet and beautiful, Clary? Not a chance." Despite the sarcasm, there was something in his eyes that told Clary there was more to it than what he let on.

Everyone in the class was finally settled down and so Clary and Jace resumed the assignment they had been doing from the day before. It was one of the most torturing ones Clary had ever had to do since it was having to draw a portrait of your partner. In the way that you perceived them.

Clary turned herself so that Jace couldn't see her drawing. She was drawing out of frustration, anger, and interestingly enough, hurt.

"I'll admit, I can't seem to quite capture your beauty, Clarissa," Jace said, after a few moments of silence.

Clary looked up, unsure if he was telling the truth or not. About her having beauty, that is.

"In fact, this entire thing is coming out pretty bad." He held his paper up, but so that Clary couldn't see it, and squinted.

"Well, I think we've already established that you're no artist," Clary said, referring to the time they were supposed to draw a flower and while hers was a beautiful rose drawn in chiaroscuro, his looked like he had stolen it from a kindergartener.

He shrugged. "I never claimed otherwise."

He leaned forward, close enough so that Clary could smell his sweet lemon and sunshine scent. It was so intoxicating, so enticing, that Clary nearly closed the space between them to see if he tasted the same way.

His voice brought her back to reality. She flushed a little because of what she had been thinking. "Can I see yours? I want to see if you did my sexiness any justice."

Clary hugged her sketchpad to her chest and laughed. "What makes you think I find you sexy at all?"

He leaned back and put his hands behind his head. "Well, first of all I've yet to meet a single person, man or woman, who doesn't find me sexy, and second," he paused and smirked at her. "Last Saturday pretty much confirmed it."

Instantly, Clary frowned and glared at him. "You're such an jerk."

He raised his eyebrows, but didn't say anything.

She was about to turn away so that she could resume drawing his humongous head, that's the main part of her drawing anyway, the fact that he's got a huge ego, when she felt a cool hand on her wrist.

Everything in her stopped and she froze, focusing on the electric shocks that were racing through her nerves. She looked back at Jace and slowly took her hand away. How could a single touch like that have such a strong effect, she thought.

Jace looked at her with sad eyes and Clary was struck with the need to comfort him. For some reason, she couldn't stand seeing him like that. Even though he was the most irritating person she had ever met.

"I'm sorry, Clary." He shook his head. "There are times when I'm just – I don't know." He brought his hands up and rubbed his eyes. "But I'm sorry for that night. I shouldn't have said the things that I did. There's something so frustrating about you. But," he said when he noticed she was going to say something, "not in a bad way."

He took a hold of her hand again, the feeling of it causing Clary's heart to beat at an irregular speed. Was he being honest? She couldn't tell, she wasn't used to this Jace. The him that was nice and apologizing instead of arrogant and rude.

He started rubbing circles on the back of her hand and then the bell rang.

They both looked up, startled that the time had passed so quickly and Jace let go of Clary's hand. She felt the loss of it immediately.

Jace gathered his things and then stood up. He looked down at Clary with a smile. "So, do you think we could be friends? Instead of this weird hate thing we got going on?"

Clary stood up as well and stuffed her sketchpad into her backpack before he could see her drawing of him. His head dominated practically the entire page with the body looking like a little stick and she felt it would be insulting to show it to him when they were trying to make amends.

She looked into his golden eyes and was surprised to see the sincerity and the cautiousness. Was he scared that she might say no?

Everything in Clary was saying that she wanted to be anything but friends. It scared her how much she wanted to be _more_ than just friends. She wanted him to hold her hand all the time and she wanted to know what his lips felt like against hers. But he kept on sending her mixed signals and she wasn't sure how he felt about her so she said,"Well, everything's worth a chance right? So yeah, let's be friends."

He smiled genuinely and then left, calling out, "Football practice awaits me!"

Sebastian came and stood next to her with a scowl. "He's a douche isn't he?" Clary rolled her eyes and told him to leave. He shrugged and then did as she said.

Just as she was about to leave, too, she noticed that Jace had left his drawing on the table. After a moment of debating whether or not she should look at it she decided that he was going to have to show her eventually so she picked it up and turned it over.

"Oh my God," Clary whispered. On the sheet was Clary, but more beautiful than she could ever have imagined herself. Maybe Jace really did steal that crappy drawing of a flower because what she was looking at at the moment was anything but crappy.

It was her standing in what looked like the Lightwood's living room and her hair was much the same way it had been the night they went out; flowing down in wavy curls. Except instead of the green dress she had been wearing, in the drawing she had on a long white dress that looked more like it belonged on a Greek goddess than her. It made her look tall, willowy, and graceful instead of how she really was. The thing that stood out the most, though, were her eyes. The deep emerald color shined in comparison to the entire drawing. It looked like she was looking off into the distance and was lost in thought.

On her hand was a ring that looked golden. Like his eyes.

_Is this what he thinks of me? Is this how he sees me?_

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She took it out and read the text from Isabelle: excuse me I've been waiting for like an hour!

She put the drawing in her backpack and promised to return it to him the next day. What would his reaction be? Would he be surprised and embarrassed or would he brush it off like whatever?

But inside she was hoping he wouldn't remember at all and she would be able to keep it.

**.**

"Where are your clothes, Clary?" Simon exclaimed from inside the car. He got out quickly and rushed over to her. "We have five minutes max so let's get on in there and find you some jeans." He held her from the elbow and started escorting her back to her house.

Clary laughed and tried to stop Simon. "Hold on! What's wrong with my clothes?" she asked, raising her eyebrows and with a smile.

He looked back at her and opened his mouth in disbelief. "You think that black strip of fabric counts as clothes?" He gestured towards her black short skirt.

Clary admitted, they really were short. If she put her arms straight down at her side it would barely reach her wrists. It wasn't her fault, though. It was the dress code for Dance Bravo performances. The small skirts allowed for them to do the splits and their turns freely.

"I like it. A lot," Kyle said from behind them. Simon glared and Clary turned around and scowled at Kyle. She pulled the baggy shirt she had on down, feeling exposed all of the sudden. She would have worn sweats but it was too hot. Even the baggy shirt was pushing it.

"It's fine, Simon. It's only for dance performances."

"Whatever, let's go. I'm going to have to write a very detailed letter to the dance teacher and the principal regarding these 'uniforms'."

**.**

The cheerleaders had just finished their stupid little routine when they finally introduced the football team.

"Welcome Shadow High's own football team: The Shadowhunters!" Everyone cheered as the football team came out. Jace, along with everyone else came to a halt in the middle of the cafeteria and huddled together. The smell of too much cologne nearly made Jace throw up, but he persisted.

They started chanting 'Shadow' until it got really loud and they jumped up and yelled. They were all dressed up in their uniforms and had black and red lines painted under their eyes. Jace always hated this part of Pep Rally's, where they acted like total idiots and ran around just yelling nonsense words, but it was required for everyone to go.

They called out the names of all the players and when it came to Jace's turn, he ran out to the middle and he mostly heard girls shouting. He wondered if Clary was cheering for him, too. Probably not, she didn't seem like the type.

As soon as they finished that, the student council announced, "And now a performance from our dance team!"

The students cheered as all the dancers came out and took the spotlight. their names being called as they walked out.

"Isabelle Lightwood!"

Jace watched as Isabelle strutted out, looking like a model walking down a runway. He wasn't very comfortable watching his sister come out in the tiny uniforms, but she dressed like that all the time so it didn't bother him so much.

It did bother him, however, when he saw the person who followed.

"Clarissa Fray!" they said next.

She walked out, looking more confident than Jace had ever seen her, with a little bounce in her step and a big smile on her face.

They kept on calling out more names and all the guys were whistling and yelling, but all Jace could do was stare at Clary.

She was so, so beautiful...and so, so exposed. He's not going to lie, he liked what he was seeing. Even though she was short, she had really long sexy legs. It bothered him that everyone else could see so much of her too, though.

They all got into their places, Clary and Isabelle one of the few in front and began dancing as soon as the music started.

Jace was entranced. She was so graceful and – limber. Jace smirked, that would be very useful some day. He thought back to the day before and grimaced. He couldn't believe that he had told Clary that he wanted to be friends. Sure, it was a step forward, but not in the direction that he wanted. He wanted more.

A voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Check out the redhead, man."

He turned around and saw a couple of guys pointing at Clary. One with brown hair said, "Damn, she's hot." He turned to his friend and said, "If she lifted her leg a little higher when they do those splits thing, you would totally be able to see her v-"

Jace didn't let him finish that sentence. He had walked up to him and grabbed him by the shirt.

"What were you going to say about her?" he nearly shouted. He was trying to hold in his anger. No one was going to talk about _his_ Clary like that. Well, she wasn't exactly his, but he still felt a need to protect her from other guys.

The guy's eyes widened. "Is she your girlfriend or something?"

Jace thought about it. "And if she is?"

"Oh, I - I'm sorry, then, I didn't know she was taken, man," he stammered.

Jace let go of him and pushed him. "You're lucky we're in school or else this would have ended way differently." Both guys nodded and then backed away until they disappeared into the crowd.

"Wow, Jace. That was amazing. You scared them off and, like, you didn't even hit them," a high voice said from behind him. Kaelie. Jace sighed and turned around. "What'd they do?"

"They offended my virtue," he responded.

She furrowed her brow. "What's that?"

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes and said, "Forget it." He looked back to where the dancers were and saw that they were leaving and the band was taking their place.

Kaelie came closer to him and wrapped her arm around him. "Anyway, like, did you see those dancers? And to think they call us cheerleaders the sluts. I can't believe they let them walk around like that, with their cellulite and everything..." she went on, but Jace had learned to tune her out. He didn't want to hear about how cheerleaders were better than everyone else, and how they were envied by everyone. She was very annoying, but Jace only kept her around because of what she had to offer. Lately, though, he was starting to think maybe he should start a real relationship with someone. Maybe look around for a red head. He had never gone out with one of those, after all.

**.**

"I don't believe you forgot that we weren't supposed to go to sixth period today, Clary," Isabelle said as they walked out of the gym. Clary was just settling into her seat in Art when Isabelle had burst in and dragged her off to the gym so they could do last minute practices. They were going to have their first dance competition the next day. She hadn't even had the chance to give Jace his drawing back.

"I really thought Ms. Duff had said we could get out of sixth ten minutes earlier and then go to the gym," Clary explained.

"Or maybe it was wishful thinking." Isabelle looked at her slyly and then asked, "Why, did you want to see someone special in that class?"

Clary flushed and turned away. "There is no one special in that class, Iz.." She couldn't tell if she was lying or not.

"Right."

They walked out of the doors and made their way down the steps. Clary looked to the right and saw Jace.

She was about to call out his name when a girl with extremely bright red hair and a band hat walked up to him. She took off her hat and placed it on Jace's head. He didn't look surprised at all. In fact, he looked kind of happy. He smiled down at her and the girl tugged the little strap down so she could bring him down lower. He leaned down and before he could kiss her Clary looked away.

"I didn't know Jace had a girlfriend," Clary whispered.

Isabelle turned around, confusion in her eyes. "He does?" She looked around. "Where is he?"

"It doesn't matter. Let's leave already, Alec and Magnus are probably already waiting for us."

Isabelle looked at Clary with sadness. Clary refused to look at her as they made their way to the car. They were going to hang out with Alec and Magnus before they went to the game, but suddenly Clary felt sick.

"Hey Izzy, I don't think I'm going to go to the game."

Isabelle nodded in understanding. "That's fine, Clary. We can drop you off before we go."

_Hey, he said friends, right?_ Clary told herself. _Why would he even want me when he has those perfect looks and he could have whoever he wants._

Clary tried to convince herself that nothing more was going to happen between them, but even then she could feel the tears threatening to spill.


	7. Moving On

_Disclaimer: Anything from the Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare._

* * *

><p>Clary, Isabelle, Alec, and Magnus had been at Magnus' apartment for over an hour already and they still hadn't decided on what they were going to do.<p>

Isabelle handed the popcorn bowl to Clary. She wasn't paying much attention, though, and the bowl slipped through her fingers, kernels landing all around her.

"Clary," Isabelle said softly, picking the bowl up. "You need to stop thinking about him. He isn't worth it."

Clary opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off when Magnus appeared out of nowhere, as though from thin air.

He stared at her impassively. "Clarissa," he said finally. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply. "I understand your need to have a mess everywhere, as evident by your room, but this is my apartment." He looked up. "And I try very hard to keep _my_ mess organized, but that doesn't involve food. Now clean that up."

Clary numbly began to pick up the individual popcorn.

"So what are we watching?" Alec asked as he glanced at the shelf full of DVDs. He took out one of the boxes and turned to Magnus. "You have all the seasons of Gilligan's Island?"

"Of course," Magnus said, plucking it out of Alec's hands. "But we'll save that for one of our more private dates."

"I don't really feel like watching a movie, you guys," Clary said. She had gathered all the popcorn and stood up to take them to the trash in the kitchen. She knew she was being mopey, but she couldn't help herself. "Aren't you guys supposed to be preparing yourself for the game, anyway?"

Isabelle twirled around. "Actually, yes! I brought over all the face paint and ribbons so we could fix ourselves here. But since you're not going I was only going to do myself."

"I wanted to watch a movie," Alec mumbled.

"You're right, Iz." Magnus got that mischievous look in his eyes, and Alec backed away a little. "I don't know why I didn't think of that before, but we should all go completely spirited up!" He turned to Alec with a broad smile on his face. "Starting with you."

Alec immediately got a terrified look on his face and put his hands up. "Wait, I don't think I want that. It – it's just not – well, you know, I don't like that stuff on my face and...it's really hard to take off..." he trailed off as Magnus grabbed his hand and hauled him to the bathroom.

"So I guess that just leaves me," Isabelle said. She said to Clary, "Are you sure that you don't want to go? It'll be really fun. Everyone will be cheering and yelling and having fun. And then the half-time show when they do the battle of the bands, that's the best!"

Clary's heart constricted a little when Isabelle mentioned the band; it reminded her of Jace with the band hat on.

"No, it's okay. I'm not really a football type of person anyway. I'll just be bored and put a sour mood on the night." With that Clary went to the kitchen and threw away the popcorn.

"That headband would look fabulous on you!" Magnus' muffled shout echoed through the apartment. Clary smiled inwardly, wondering how Alec was probably feeling like he was being tortured.

Isabelle followed after her and leaned against the counter. She looked at Clary pointedly. "Give me a good reason as to why you don't want to go to the game," she demanded.

Clary was taken aback, just earlier she had been very understanding and now she was being aggressive. Clary looked back defiantly. "I'm not required to go, so if I don't want to go just because I don't want to, then I don't have to," she retorted as she walked out of the kitchen.

She heard Isabelle sigh behind her. "Clary, Jace isn't even all that great! He's just a man-whore."

"This isn't about Jace," Clary snapped and then sat down on the couch.

Isabelle stood in front of her and crossed her arms. "Oh, really? So then what is it about?"

"I already told you: I don't like football games."

"I can tell when you're lying," Isabelle said, and after a few seconds added, "but fine, I can't force you to go." At that moment, the doorbell rang and Clary shot up to get it. She walked to the door where a giant Marilyn Monroe cut-out hung. Must be Magnus' inspiration, Clary thought.

The bell rang again just as she opened the door, and was met head-on with a radiant, smiling Ivan.

"Are you guys ready to go?" he exclaimed. He was dressed in a plain white shirt and a beige jacket with dark jeans. The jacket only emphasized his golden brown hair and Clary was once again struck by how gorgeous he was and how much he had changed. He smiled awkwardly and Clary noticed she had just been standing there for a good ten seconds without saying anything.

"Oh, sorry," Clary sputtered, "Come on in." She opened the door more to let him pass and they walked over to where Isabelle was. "They're all still getting ready and there's been a change of plans -"

"Hey, Ivan," Isabelle cut in, drawing out his name flirtatiously. "Did I ever tell you that I really dig the surfer boy look?" Clary shot her a confused look. She thought Isabelle was trying to get with Simon.

Ivan shrugged, a small smile on his lips. "I'm actually tan because I'm part Brazilian and my long hair is to cover up my eyebrows."

Clary started laughing, then. Isabelle was shocked at her outburst and Ivan held a knowing look in his eyes. Suddenly, Clary brought her hand up and brushed Ivan's hair out of the way. Sure enough, his eyebrows still looked like big, bushy caterpillars; they were probably the biggest she'd ever seen.

Isabelle gasped. "Have you ever thought about using tweezers?"

Before Ivan could answer, Magnus walked out with a very colorful Alec. Alec had the number 17 painted on one cheek in red and on the other was a little sword, to represent the 'Shadowhunters'. No one at school knew what they were exactly, just that they were some type of warriors. His hair had a red stripe going down the middle and he was wearing the red school shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He didn't look particularly happy, either, but Magnus was practically beaming. His hair was spiked up with red and blue glitter and his shirt was the same as Alec's. Ah, such a happy couple.

Then Clary was reminded of Jace and his girlfriend and a sick feeling settled in her body.

"Hello, Clary's little friend," Magnus said to Ivan. Alec merely glanced at him. "Are you still coming with us since our ginger is ditching us?"

Ivan looked at her and Clary explained, "That's what I was going to tell you before Isabelle interrupted. I don't like football and I just really don't feel like going, so I'm just going to head home."

Ivan spoke without missing a beat. "Okay, I won't go either. We can hang out and have our own fun." He smiled.

"Oh, this one's a keeper, Clary!" Magnus exclaimed. "You guys go ahead and have your fun, we won't interrupt," he said suggestively.

Clary rolled her eyes. Ivan was her ex-boyfriend and currently one of her best friends, but that's all he'll ever be for her. Nothing more, nothing less. "Whatever, Magnus. So do you guys want to head out already?"

"Actually, I still need to get ready," Isabelle piped up, holding up her bag of paint and make-up.

"Right," Clary said, "Okay, so I guess we'll be leaving. Come on, Ivan," she said as she walked towards the door.

Everyone said their goodbyes and Clary and Ivan soon found themselves on their way to a park.

"I'm telling you, I only walked by the Hollister store and they offered me a the job right there and then," Ivan was telling Clary as they climbed out of his car.

"You're lying," Clary said, laughing. She wasn't really into it, though. It felt like she was just going through the motions.

"I'm not. I would've taken it, but I'm only 16, and I'm not allowed to work yet," he said with a grimace.

They were making their way to the playground and seeing as how there were no kids there, they sat down on the swings.

"You can always go back in a couple of months when you turn 17," Clary responded as she looked up at the sky. It was only 6 pm and the sun was just starting to set; it was times like these that she wished she had her sketchbook so that she could just draw the beauty of it. "So they wanted you as a cashier?"

He turned to her and flashed a smug grin. "Actually, the lady thought I would make a good model."

Clary rolled her eyes. "You sound like Jace right now." Clary decided right there that she and Jace were just friends, if you can even call them that, and so there was no reason for her to have those stupid feelings about him going out with another girl. It's not like they liked each other, anyway. She continued, "You should definitely bring that up next time you see him, he would be so jealous."

Ivan looked at her blankly and then suddenly stood up and went behind Clary and began to push her gently.

He didn't say anything for a while and then she felt his hot breath on the back of her neck. "Clary, Souhaitez-vous sortir avec moi?" he asked in a whisper.

Clary was shocked into silence. For a moment it felt like all her breath had left her entire body. She stopped swinging her legs and her grip tightened on the chains of the swing. Her swing was slowing down and she noticed that Ivan had stopped pushing her.

She'd known Ivan for so long and they had already gone through the entire process: strangers, friends, best friends, boyfriend and girlfriend, and then back to strangers when he left. Now he was back and they were best friends again, and she didn't think that she could repeat that process with him. The more she thought about going out with him, the more she felt like it would be going out with Simon, who is like her brother. The thought made her somewhat queasy, but then she remembered that she hadn't had a boyfriend for a very long while.

And a boyfriend would help you get over Jace, her subconscious informed her. Not that she needed to get over him since they weren't anything to begin with, but something about that thought, that she would have someone else to focus on made her feel somewhat elated.

But this was _Ivan_. Couldn't she have another suitor? Well, there was Sebastian, but he wasn't really serious, she suspected.

Ivan interrupted her thoughts. "I know you think that we can't be together again, for some reason, but Clary, listen, I never stopped loving you. I thought about you all the time when I was in Florida, and now that I'm here with you, all I can think of is how amazing it would be to be with you again."

Clary looked down as Ivan stepped in front of her. He put his finger under her chin and lifted her head. He looked down at her with his light brown eyes and asked, "Do you think you could give me another chance?"

Something about the way he asked, the way he looked at her with his sincere eyes, and the way he still acted like when they were in middle school made her want to say yes. And then she realized she couldn't say no. It was her fault they had broken up in the first place and she felt like she owed it to him to see if they would have ever worked out if he hadn't left.

He was about to pull away when Clary suddenly smiled and said, "Yeah, I think we could give it another go."

Ivan broke out his signature blinding smile and lifted Clary off of her swing. He wrapped his arms around her waist and before she could even grasp what was going on, he brought his lips down to hers. She was shocked for a second, but then placed her hands around his neck as she willed her lips to move. For a second she was disappointed that she didn't feel any sparks, like she used to, but she told herself it was because she was taken off guard and the next time would be better.

Clary had a fleeting thought about what it would feel like to kiss Jace, who was much more experienced, to feel his blonde hair between her fingers instead of Ivan's brown locks, and to have Jace's skilled, artistic hands holding her instead of Ivan's callused ones, but then brushed the thought away when she realized that she was thinking about another man while kissing her...boyfriend.

As they parted, and Clary looked into Ivan's gleaming eyes, she finally admitted it to herself: She only had an irrational crush on Jace; they weren't anything to each other, not even close friends. Besides, he was a player, he probably went through four girls a day – and she wouldn't be one of them.


	8. Conflicted

_Disclaimer: Anything from the Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare._

* * *

><p>Ivan and Clary walked hand in hand around the park. Clary could tell Ivan was happy. He was smiling the entire time and swinging their hands exaggeratedly as he pointed out different constellations. Wrongly. He didn't know anything about the stars, Clary knew. He was just like that, trying to make her laugh.<p>

"See that one?" he asked, as he brought their intertwined hands up and pointed at some small little dot in the sky. "That one's Orion's belt."

Clary let out a small laugh. Shouldn't being with someone she cared about make her happy? Then why did she feel like she was here against her will? "Orion's belt has three stars. You're wrong," Clary said, "again."

Ivan laughed real loud and then sighed. "I guess that's true. Hey, do you want to go to the game?"

Clary stopped in her tracks and looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed. "I think the game's over by now, why?"

He tugged on her hand and they started walking again. He shrugged. "Well, we can see how we scored and then afterward I'll just drop you off at your house."

So she was going to the game. Where Jace would be. Where Jace will be making out with his girlfriend. The image of Jace kissing that girl with the red hair was still burning in her mind and she couldn't shake it off. Every time she thought of Jace, that's the image that she would see and it was torturing her. But she didn't have any reason to feel that way. Maybe it will do her good if she went and saw them like that, then she could convince herself that what she felt earlier was stupid and unreasonable.

"Yeah, sure, I have that dance competition tomorrow, so I should be getting home anyway." And with that they jumped into Ivan's car and headed over to the game.

**.**

"And number 23 catches the ball and runs - " the announcer said through the microphone. Jace could barely hear him, though. He was concentrating. Concentrating on getting to the end, avoiding the opposing team, and keeping the ball close to his body. He can make it. He can. Of course he can. He's the fastest runner. With one short burst of speed, Jace made it through the last ten yards just as someone tried to tackle him.

"And the Shadowhunters gain another six points!" the announcer shouted as he was drowned out by the crowd's cheers. Then a bell rang. "The Shadowhunters win! Another great game here at Shadow high school against the opposing team, the Chaparral Cowboys." Jace slowed down after he crossed from the synthetic green 'grass' to the red part that indicated that he had won.

With sweat pouring down his face and into his uniform he took off his helmet and was instantly assaulted by all his team members.

"Damn right, we won! That was insane, bro! Fuck yeah! We did it!" the other teens chorused. Everyone stank of sweat and their hair was damp, but they couldn't care any less. Their first game and they had won.

Jace looked up to the bleachers where he had seen Alec, Magnus, and Isabelle earlier, and frowned when he noticed that Clary hadn't shown up at all. But he remembered Isabelle saying that they were all going to go together. Maybe she went to buy something. Jace was about to leave when he remembered that there was another tradition they had to do before he could actually go to his friends.

Him and his team mates created a large circle in the middle of the field and chanted Shadow over and over again along with the crowd. Then when they were done with that, the had to form a line and then shake the hands of the other team. Finally, after the stupid tradition, he was able to go to the bleachers where only a few people remained.

Alec, Magnus, and Isabelle were sitting down holding large posters with his number on them (23) and they were all glitterfied. Even Alec, though he looked more like he couldn't wait to go home and take a shower.

"Your butt looks gorgeous in those pants," Magnus remarked with a sly smile. Alec rolled his eyes and put his arm around Magnus' shoulders. Magnus then whispered something into Alec's ears and he turned red and looked away.

"It's true, have you been doing butt blasters?" Isabelle asked as she stood up. She looked ridiculous as she stuck out her own butt and looked down at it. "I've been doing them, too, but I don't see much of a difference."

"Your butt looks fine," Magnus assured her.

Alec groaned. "Can we please stop talking about butts?"

"Alec's right. You know, this is not the type of conversation I was expecting after I just almost single handedly won the game," Jace said. "Anyway, there's going to be a party at Sebastian's house around 10, if you guys want to swing by."

Isabelle frowned. "Ugh, I can't. I have that dance thing tomorrow."

"Which reminds me," Jace said, sounding mildly bored. "Where's Clary?"

"She's not here," Alec answered.

"I can see that," Jace said, a little agitated. "That's why I asked."

"She didn't want to come," Magnus added, a little too gleeful. "Something about hanging out with that hot piece of ass that's also her ex-boyfriend."

Ivan? But Clary was supposed to go to the game. Jace thought they were friends. Well, it's not like he personally invited her to go see him, but he thought she would have gone with Isabelle and they would be there cheering him on. But she had chosen to go hang out with Ivan instead. It's almost like every day he had something new to hate about Ivan.

"It's true. That Ivan is the complete package: cute, smart, and nice," Isabelle said, dreamily. "Heck, if it weren't for the fact that he's Clary's ex, I would totally be going for him."

"What about Simon?" Magnus asked.

"What about him?" Isabelle answered loftily. They kept on talking about Simon so Jace ignored them. All he could think of was that Clary had chosen Ivan over him.

He finally noticed that his sweat was drying up and his clothes were getting sticky. "I'm going to the locker room, and then I'm going to that party," he announced. "I'll catch you guys later."

"Mom doesn't want you coming home any later than 2 am," Isabelle called out as he walked down the stairs and towards the locker rooms. He ignored her. Maryse wasn't his mom. He could be out for as long as he wanted, especially in the mood he was now in.

He was walking with his head down, helmet in hand, when he bumped into something, or rather, _someone_.

"Oh, sorry!" she exclaimed. Jace recognized that voice. It was the voice that had been haunting his dreams ever since he first heard it. He held out his hands and caught her by the arms to prevent her from falling. He let go of her almost immediately, though he wished he could have touched her soft skin for just a moment longer.

"It's fine," Jace answered. He stepped away a little as she looked up.

"Oh, Jace," she said, a bit withdrawn. She bit her lip and looked down. "How'd the game go?"

"It went fairly well. We won, but of course you wouldn't know that since you weren't here," Jace stated.

Clary had the decency to look a little ashamed, but just as soon as it came it was gone and it was replaced by indifference. "Yeah, I couldn't come, I had to do some other stuff."

"Stuff like hanging out with Ivan," Jace said before he could stop himself, making it sound like an accusation. Where was his self-control? He was usually so composed and now he sounded like a jealous boyfriend, which he was not. Just as she was about to say something, he spoke. "Hey, it's fine. You didn't have to come, but I have to go now and _do stuff_."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, Jace. I just had to talk with Ivan about some things."

"Really, and where is he now?" Jace asked. "Since I don't see him with you. For all I know, maybe you weren't with him and you just didn't want to come which is absolutely fine. I don't care."

She locked her eyes with his and said, "He's waiting for me in his car, I just came by to see how you did, but seeing as how you don't care, then I can leave now."

"Jace!" he heard a girl yell. He turned to see Mara running towards him. She was in band and still had her drum with her, a band hat perched right on top of her brightly dyed red hair. She came over to him and hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "The way you totally scored that touchdown was amazing! I seriously thought that other player was going to catch up to you, but he didn't because you're just too good,"she exclaimed. Jace glanced back at Clary and was surprised to see that she was glaring at Mara.

"Well, I see what type of stuff you have to do, Jace. See you later. Ivan's waiting for me," Clary said in a clipped tone. Jace saw her tense posture and her pursed lips which meant she was really mad. But why would she be mad?

Clary walked away before Jace had the time to answer. Jace felt a need to go after her and tell her that Mara was just a friend he had just met a few days before, and that he was glad she came, even for a little while, but he couldn't find a valid reason to do so. Even if she was just a friend, why should he have to tell Clary? It's not like they were going out.

"Who was that?" Mara asked. Mara was an interesting girl. She was of average height, and had long bright red hair, with a fair complexion. Admittedly, she was very attractive. Jace had met her one day after school as he was walking by the band room and he heard her playing. He'd always had a fascination with the way a drum was played so he went to check it out and he found her in there dancing and playing like a mad woman. She was funny, kind of tomboyish, and really wild. More of a friend type, really, but the only problem was that she had this habit of greeting people by kissing them on the cheeks.

"Just a friend," he said, dismissively, even though in the back of his mind the words being thrown out were 'a wonderful girl'. Jace ignored those words and instead turned to Mara and smiled. "Are you doing anything around 10?"

She twirled a lock of hair around a finger and clicked her tongue. "Well, I'm looking forward to this cool date with my homework, but if something comes up, I'm sure it'll understand." She smirked and Jace responded with one of his own.

"Okay, wait 15 minutes and I'll be right out so we can go to a party," Jace announced.

"Well, just so you know, I don't drink," she responded. "I'm totally straight-edge."

"Even better, you can be my designated driver." With that, Jace finally left to the locker rooms. Drinking was always a good way to escape from reality, and Clary at the moment was making his reality confusing.

**.**

"Did you find them?" Ivan asked as Clary sat down and buckled her seat belt. She looked straight ahead and took a deep breath before answering.

"Yeah, they were the only ones left."

After a few seconds, Ivan asked, "How'd the game end?"

She turned to look at him, flustered. "Oh yeah, they won. Jace scored the winning touchdown."

He was quiet again and just as Clary was sure the conversations were done for the evening he asked, "Are you okay? You seem...tense."

Clary stiffened and then tried to make herself calm down. She was not mad. Of course not. Why should she? At least she had turned away before that girl kissed Jace again. Why did that bother her so much? Well, she knew why, but it was obvious Jace didn't reciprocate even a tidbit of her feelings. He was confusing, to say the least.

"I'm fine," she finally answered. "I'm just tired."

**.**

Saturday and Sunday came and went, as did the entire next week and now it was October. Clary and Ivan had been going out for one week, officially, and they hadn't told a soul. It was Clary's decision. She claimed it was because she didn't want all the attention, and they could tell everyone sometime later. Ivan was fine with that, because he was a good boyfriend. He was a good guy. Many girls would die to go out with him. In fact, Clary herself felt like her world was going to end when they had broken up in eighth grade. Clary kept reminding herself of this. Not that she needed to, but it was always great to appreciate what she had.

She and Jace were back to that stage of polite acquaintanceship. It didn't matter to her. Especially since she kept seeing him in the halls with that weird, fake redheaded girl. But they were polite to each other, and they didn't talk about that night of his football game.

In fact, they were so polite to each other that she had accepted his request to help him with his English project. She would meet with him on Saturday.

Ivan didn't mind. But maybe that was because she hadn't told him. It wasn't lying technically. And he had things to do, anyway, so he wouldn't mind if she hung out with Jace for a while. She repeated this over and over again in her head as she rode the subway, walked down the streets, and pushed the doorbell at the Lightwood's house.

_It's just Jace. So what if we haven't really talked in over a week. So what if he has a girlfriend and I have a boyfriend. We don't know each other well enough to have these weird emotions. So it's fine if I'm helping him. Because we once said we were friends, and we should try -_

"Oh, Clary," Jace said, interrupting her thoughts. He held the door only partly open, but she could see that he was wearing pajamas, he was barefoot, and his hair was very disheveled. In an I-just-rolled-out-of-bed way. Not that it was cute or anything, but she felt a need to make a mental note of it. "I didn't think you would be here this early."

"Oh," Clary mumbled. "You said before noon, so..." she trailed off. What else was she supposed to say? Maybe she should leave and come back later.

Jace laughed and opened the door wider. "Yeah, but I meant close to noon. It's barely 8:30! I didn't think you would be this eager to see me."

Was it really that early? Suddenly, Clary felt really stupid. She'd been so plagued by the idea of actually having to talk to Jace the entire day, that she only slept four hours. As soon as she woke up, she didn't have anything to do so she just walked over without even looking at the time.

She fidgeted with a strand of her hair. "Okay, I guess I'll come back later then." She turned to leave, but before she could take a step Jace had grabbed her wrist.

"I didn't say you had to leave," Jace said quickly. Clary turned back to him only to see him smirking. "C'mon." He gestured for her to go in and so she did. She noticed the house was really quiet. _Everyone is probably still asleep. Only I'm stupid enough to be up this early on a Saturday...except Jace._

Jace walked through some doors while Clary followed. She'd probably get lost if she had to go through the house herself. He stopped in the kitchen and sat down on the island and started eating what looked like cereal.

"There's cereal in the top right cupboard if you want some," Jace casually told her, as if it would be normal for her to be rummaging through his cupboards like she lived there.

Her stomach grumbled, responding positively to Jace's offer. Her cheeks turned red, but she shook her head. "I'm not really hungry," she lied.

Jace raised an eyebrow. Why is he so attractive? "I don't think it's healthy to be that skinny. Do you ever eat at all?"

She rolled her eyes and sat down on one of the stools. Might as well get comfortable. "Of course I eat. I'm just not hungry."

Jace resumed eating his cereal thoughtfully. "You know, that's one of the signs of anorexia, refusing food. And that's rude anyway, declining a host's offer to eat."

"I'm _not _anorexic," she nearly shouted. Everyone told her she looked anorexic, but how was it her fault that she had a fast metabolism and she didn't enjoy eating copious amounts of food?

Jace shrugged, but she could see that he took some satisfaction in her reaction.

As if to prove a point, she stood up and walked over to the cupboard he had mentioned earlier. She could feel his gaze on her as she stood on her toes and and tried to open it. But she couldn't reach. She was glad that her back was to him because her face was probably redder than her hair. _I'm a skinny, little midget,_ she thought miserably to herself.

She heard Jace chuckle and that only made her more determined. She brought up one leg over the counter and then jumped up so she would be kneeling on it. Who cares if it wasn't her house? Now she just didn't want to feel any more embarrassed than she already did. She opened the cupboard and looked around until she found Honey Bunch of Oats. Her favorite. Suddenly, there were strong arms going around her waist.

"What are you doing?" Clary yelled as Jace clutched her as she was clutching the box of cereal; to her chest. He started laughing, and after realizing that he wasn't going to let her go, she started giggling. Clary didn't want to admit it, but darn it all if she didn't feel wonderful having his arms around her. "Let me down!" He spun her around once and then walked over to the stool she had been sitting on. She felt like an oversized baby. Her giggling subsided and he placed her on the stool.

As he was grabbing a bowl and the milk for her, she said, "I don't like being carried. It makes me feel smaller than I already am."

He brought the things to her and as she was preparing it, he told her, "Well, from your point of view, that counter probably felt like a mountain. Since you're so tiny."

She slapped his chest, momentarily feeling the hard muscle underneath his black shirt, and mock scowled at him. "Shut up. We can't all be gigantic freaks like your family."

"Are you calling Isabelle a gigantic freak?" he questioned mockingly. "I guess I'll have to tell her this when she gets back."

Back?

"Isabelle's not here?" Clary asked quickly. "I thought she was asleep."

For a minute, Jace looked confused. "I thought she would've told you. She and her mom left yesterday for some fashion show thing."

Oh. Clary pursed her lips. "So then who's here?" she finally asked.

For the first time since Clary had met him, Jace seemed a little nervous. "Me?" he probably meant it as a statement, but it came out as a question.

Panic settled in. "You're the only one here?" Clary exclaimed, practically knocking over her bowl. She stood up and just stared at Jace. "Where's everyone else?" Well, if it sounded bad that she was hanging out with Jace without telling Ivan, now it was only worse being with him alone in his house.

Jace was taken aback by her outburst. "I'm not going to rape you or anything, Jesus, Clary. Alec slept over at Magnus' and Robert's at work. They won't be back until 4 or so."

Clary nodded slowly. Okay, she wouldn't even be there that long, hopefully. But then the more she thought about it, the more at peace she was with it. So what if she was with Jace alone? Ivan doesn't know and they're only going to work on school work. Which reminded her that she was there for a reason.

"Right, well, I don't think I can stay that long, so maybe we should get started?" she asked after she finished her cereal, trying to pretend that she didn't just freak out about being alone with him. Jace just stared at her like she was crazy, but then nodded.

"Sure, let's go, my room's upstairs." With that, he started walking away. Should they work in his room? Clary felt more paranoid than ever, but then followed him when she noticed he wasn't going to wait for her. Rude.

She caught up to him in one of the many hallways. They were lined with family portraits and Clary noticed that Jace didn't really show up in any of them until he was maybe 10 years old. She knew he was adopted, but she didn't know any of his history, in fact she noticed that he had said Isabelle's mom; not his. So did that mean he didn't consider her his mom, too?

She asked him just that. He raised an eyebrow thoughtfully and then shrugged. Her mood deflated. He must have noticed because he said, "It's complicated with all of that, and I don't really like to talk about it, but Maryse is in many ways my mom, but at the same time she's not." He shrugged again and Clary decided to let it go. It was obvious he didn't want to tell her and even though Clary hated the feeling that that caused, she wasn't going to try to make him talk about something she shouldn't care about.

They ascended some stairs and finally arrived at what she guessed was his room. He opened the door and ushered Clary in. Jace left the door open and stood next to Clary as she just stared, shocked.

She didn't know exactly what she was expecting for Jace's room to look like, maybe some posters of scantily clad girls (not really – he didn't seem like the type), a bunch of trophies, or some photos of himself, but she wasn't expecting _this:_ white walls, a black queen-sized bed, cleanliness, but mostly the emptiness. It was empty except for the bed, a dresser, and a desk. Not even a mirror, which she found hard to believe from Jace.

Jace went over to the desk, ignoring her and her stillness, and pulled out his backpack and started looking through it. Clary finally snapped out of her daze and walked over to Jace.

"So what is it that you have to do, exactly?" she asked as he finally pulled out some sheets of paper.

"Well, we read The Laramie Project in class, which is basically a play made up of a compilation of interviews from an entire town, called Laramie, about the murder of a gay teen. It's a true story. So our project is that we have to choose an issue and conduct our own interviews." Jace smirked at her. "That's where you come in."

Clary felt nervous. She hated interviews; it was one of the main reasons she couldn't get a job. She always messed up somehow when the people were asking her questions. She nodded anyway. "Okay, so why couldn't we do this in a more public place?"

Jace was quick to answer. "Because then you would've believed I was asking you out on a date." He paused. "Unless you want that. In that case we could go right now to a cafe and you could enjoy some fine scenery as you gaze lovingly at me."

Clary scoffed. "Yeah right, I would never go out with such a pretentious douche bag, and anyway you have a girlfriend," Clary added.

Jace looked amused. "Oh, do tell, and who is my girlfriend?"

Clary rolled her eyes. Was he doing this to make fun of her? No, he didn't even know that she liked him. "She has red hair? And a fair complexion?" she added when he didn't say anything. He stared at her like he couldn't believe what she was saying. "Really pretty?" she went on. She was going to say she was in band when Jace started laughing out loud.

Clary looked at him confused. What was wrong with him? Jace put a hand on her shoulder and Clary had to fight against the feelings it caused in her and completely ignore it. "Are you saying that you're my girlfriend?"

"What? No!" Clary then realized what she had said and blushed. "I mean that girl in band. The night of your game she came and kissed you while we were...talking." Should she have said arguing? That didn't matter.

Jace let go of her and grinned. "Is Clarissa jealous?"

She rolled her eyes and tried to hide her burning cheeks. "Of course not, I'm just saying that you have a girlfriend and you shouldn't flirt with other girls."

"She's not my girlfriend," he said, like it was nothing. Clary felt a wave of relief go through her. Clary wanted to say, _but you kissed her! Twice!_But now that she thought about it, she had never really seen them kiss, just leaning in close to each other. Then why were they always together?

Then Clary remembered something else. Jace had implied that she was pretty. He thought she was pretty. Clary almost couldn't contain herself, but forced herself to. Jace kept on staring at her so Clary looked away. _I have a boyfriend._

"Right, well that's great," she said awkwardly. "Can we start? I have to be home by 2," she lied. She couldn't stand embarrassing herself any longer.

Jace looked at her for a few more seconds with his golden eyes and then walked over to his bed and grabbed what she believed was his phone. He told her to sit on the chair at his desk as he leaned against the wall. Clary tried to avert his gaze from his lean figure right in front of her, but she couldn't. God, he looked sexy in pajamas. He was so beautiful, Clary thought, no wonder he always had so many girls around him. None of which were her, she thought dismally. But then again, she didn't want to be one of _those _girls. The type that hung around him like he was a celebrity. Even though he was douche-y sometimes – most of the time – Clary remembered the occasional times he was nice to her and she couldn't help but want to be with _that_ guy. The one who made that drawing of her, the one who wanted to be friends with her, the one who could make her feel butterflies and annoy her at the same time.

She noticed she was still staring and jerked her head up to see him smiling knowingly at her. She ignored it.

**.**

As Jace looked at Clary sitting on his chair, he noticed her staring at him like how she would stare at her art and Jace couldn't help but wonder what she saw. For some reason, he wanted for her to look at him like how Kaelie and Macie and all those other girls would look at him. But maybe not that way entirely. They looked at him like he was a prize to be won, but sometimes Clary looked at him like he was more than that and he craved that. When she had claimed Mara was his girlfriend he thought he had imagined it because she really did look like she was jealous. So maybe she did like him, despite his many flaws.

But could he afford to like her back? Clary snapped her eyes back to his and he smiled. She didn't.

"So what issue did you choose?" Clary asked. Jace placed his phone on the desk between them and pushed record. "Oh right, of course you would be recording this. Okay, so what type of questions am I going to be answering?" she asked in her frustrating way.

Jace picked up the sheet of paper he had earlier and began, "The issue is parenting and teen rebellion. Now, I just want you to answer these as truthfully as you can, and don't worry, we can make this anonymous if you want."

Clary sighed. "All right."

Jace began asking the questions and Clary answered, mostly pointless questions that his group had come up with, but there was one question in particular that seemed to strike a chord with Clary.

"What was the worst argument you've ever had with your mother about?" Jace questioned. Clary stiffened and looked away. She didn't speak for a while. Clary had become very solemn and Jace guessed maybe she had a lot of problems with her mother.

Jace was about to tell her they could skip the question since she was clearly uncomfortable with it, but then she said soflty, "I wanted to go to a museum, but she didn't, or _couldn't_ take me, I guess. So I cried and went to my room and didn't talk to her for a week."

Jace waited a few seconds to see if she would elaborate before saying, "That seems a bit dramatic and childish, don't you think?"

"Maybe because I _was _dramatic and childish at the time," she responded. She still hadn't looked back at him.

"How old were you?"

"Five years old. I was in kindergarten," she said quietly.

Jace was getting tired of having to practically pull these answers out of her so he asked, "You haven't had any more serious arguments since then?" He admitted he was confused by her ranging attitudes. If she hasn't had a more serious argument since then, then didn't that mean she got along with her mother? Maybe she just didn't want to talk about her.

"I haven't really had the chance to considering she died a year after."

Jace was shocked into silence, which was something that rarely ever happened to him. He felt an urge to put his arms around her and make her feel better, but instead settled on simply saying, "At least you know she loved you."

Clary finally looked up and gave him a small smile. He felt his heart skip a beat. "That's true. That was the last argument I ever had with her. We spent her last year happy."

"Spending time with you would make anyone happy," Jace stated. He hadn't meant to say it, and from the look of Clary's expression, she probably never expected for him to say anything like that either. But he was glad he did because it made Clary blush and he liked being able to do that to her.

Jace decided he would omit that part from the interview. He wanted that moment for themselves, not to share with everyone else at school.

After a moment of silence, they continued the interview, with him skipping the ones about mothers. They finally finished and Clary helped him put together all the other interviews into separate categories and then put them together so it would tell a story. It took a long time, but they finally finished a little bit before two.

"Well, I guess it's time for me to go," Clary said a bit timidly. Jace liked seeing this side of her. Usually she was so stubborn and always arguing with him, but now she was acting nervously like his presence was causing it. And then he realized that it probably was. The thought made Jace inexplicably happy.

"Very well," Jace said with a grin. "You've exceeded the amount of time you can see my miraculous body and gorgeous face already, anyway." Clary laughed and he felt her small hand push his shoulder slightly as they walked down to the foyer. "Was that your pathetic excuse of a punch?" he asked disbelievingly.

"I didn't want to hurt you what with all of your delicacy. You'd probably freak out if I gave you a bruise, 'oh no, my beautiful body!'" she said in what he guessed was supposed to be him speaking in a high-pitched voice. He laughed.

"I can't believe you just chortled," Clary said.

"I didn't chortle," Jace countered. Chortling was not attractive and Jace was anything but unattractive. "I was chuckling." Clary burst out laughing as they neared the front door. "And yours was a cackle."

Clary glared at him, but she was also trying to stop laughing so she looked constipated. She finally let go and giggled. A sweet giggle that made Jace want to steal it straight from her lips. The urge was so strong that Jace decided to go for it before he even realized it.

Just as Clary was about to open the door, Jace pinned her between him and the door with his body. She stopped giggling and inhaled quickly. She smelled of lavender. She looked up at him with big green eyes, but he was focused on her lips.

Jace put his hands on hers and then skimmed her arms with his fingertips up to her elbows, over her shoulders and then finally settling with one behind her neck and the other on the small of her back. He pulled her close to him, feeling her body against his, and fingered the soft locks of her beautiful red hair.

Clary was breathing quickly, but Jace could tell that she wanted to kiss him too, with the way she glanced down at his lips and placed her hands on his torso.

He wanted it so bad, to just press his lips to hers and to finally taste her, to feel her, but he didn't want this feeling to end so quickly. So he leaned down and placed his lips at her temple. Her skin was so soft and Jace could feel his heart beating strongly in his chest. He placed another kiss on her cheekbone with all of its freckles and then trailed down her jaw. He set a final kiss on the tip of her nose before leaning further down and finally pressing his lips down on hers. She gasped and opened her mouth slightly. Her plump lips were so soft, so inviting, but before Jace could have any real satisfaction and really kiss her she leaned away.

"I can't," Clary said softly, avoiding his gaze. It all came crashing down and Jace was thrust back into reality.

"Why not?" he demanded. He didn't move at all, keeping her trapped between him and the door. He didn't want to move.

Clary looked conflicted, but didn't say anything. Jace kept on staring at her, hoping she would look back at him and see how much she was making him feel, but she just bit the lips he had just kissed and refused to meet his eyes. "I just can't."

It wasn't the first time a girl had rejected him, something that happened rarely, but for the first time Jace felt his heart clench when Clary did it. He stepped back and she moved away. He composed himself and finally opened the door so she could step out. He couldn't believe what had just happened. Since when did he lose his control with a girl? But this was Clary and she made him feel things he never thought he'd be able to feel. And that only made the rejection hurt even more. But then something struck in the the back of his mind.

"Right. I suppose Ivan wouldn't be so happy about us professing our love to each other," Jace said with false hurt.

She glared at him, but then her eyes widened and she said frantically, "You know about Ivan?"

Jace shrugged, not understanding why she was so panicky all of the sudden. "What, that he's a boring little boy with oversensitive emotions? In that case, yes, I do know about Ivan."

She looked relieved, which bothered Jace since he was expecting her to get mad or at least frustrated with him. "Don't mention what happened to anyone, please?" she asked, biting her lips again. She was going to be the death of him if she didn't stop doing that.

"Don't worry, I don't want my reputation ruined either," he responded with malice. If she cared more about Ivan than him, then he had no reason to be completely pleasant with her.

"Because I didn't let you kiss me?"

"No, because you don't fit in with the types of girls I date." Jace shrugged and watched as her face fell. He didn't want to make her feel _bad_, but sometimes what he said came out unfiltered and uninhibited. He couldn't stop it.

She gave a curt nod and then started walking down the steps towards the gates. He would have offered to give her a ride, but he didn't think he could be with her in a small enclosed space without wanting to kiss her again, and she obviously didn't want that, so he let her go.

He watched as her small figure passed the fountain and then he closed the door so that he wouldn't have to torture himself anymore with the idea of running after her and never letting her go.


End file.
